Tribes in Ancient India c54.29

c54.29

The Vaṅga country is also referred to in the Mahākuṭa Pillar Inscription (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. V), which tells us that in the sixth century A.D., Kīrtivarman of the Cālukya dynasty gained victories over the kings of Vaṅga, Aṅga and Magadha, which were three neighbouring countries. Another reference to the realm of the Vaṅga people is made in the ‘*Gauḍavaho*’, a Marathi Prakrit poem that records the exploits of King Yaśovarman of Kanauj (first half of the eighth century A.D). The identity of Yaśovarman has been sufficiently established by his mention in Chinese records (as I-cha-fon-mo), and also in the *Rājatarangiṇī* of Kalhaṇa; but the exploits recorded in the ‘*Gauḍavaho*’, with the exception of the main topics, i.e. the defeat and death of the Gauḍa king, are of doubtful historical value. We are told that Yaśovarman, bent on conquest, first came to the river Son, whence he proceeded to the Vindhyas with his army. Fearing his approach, the Gauḍa king, who was also the king of Magadha, fled, and Yaśovarman entered his territory and fixed his camp there. The Gauḍa king returned, and a battle was fought in which he was killed. Yaśovarman next proceeded to the Vaṅga kingdom, whose king also submitted to him.² Not long after Yaśovarman’s victories, Odivisa, Vaṅga and five other countries of the east (which seem to have included Gauḍa, Suhma, Puṇḍra, etc.) seem, according to the celebrated Tibetan historian Tārānāth (*Ind. Ant.*, Vol. IV, pp. 365-6), to have been plunged into a chaos which has been described as ‘*Mātsya-nyāya*’,—i.e. the system where the strong destroy the weak, like the big fish eating up the small frog. This was ended when Gopāla, the first of the Pāla dynasty, was elected king from amongst the people sometime in the middle of the eighth century A.D.