Tribes in Ancient India c54.15

c54.15

It, therefore, seems that in the period represented by the Epics and the Purāṇas, Vaṅga, Puṇḍra (or Pauṇḍra) and Suhma were the three important divisions of Bengal, but it is difficult to define with any degree of exactitude the geographical positions of these divisions. We may, however, assume that Puṇḍra and Suhma were two adjacent tracts, identical roughly with the modern Rajshahi and Burdwan divisions respectively. In the *Sabhāparvan* of the *Mahābhārata* Aṅga and Vaṅga are mentioned as forming one Viṣaya or kingdom. This is supported by a reference in the *Rāmāyaṇa* (Bk. II, Chap. X) where the Vaṅgas are mentioned along with the Aṅgas; they are, moreover, nearly always associated in ancient literature with the Aṅgas and Kaliṅgas.