Tribes in Ancient India c57.8

c57.8

The Puṇḍras are sometimes referred to as Pauṇḍras, Pauṇḍrakas (cf. *Manusaṃhitā*), or even Pauṇḍrikas. In the *Mahābhārata*, these names are sometimes used as equivalents, but sometimes a distinction is made between the Pauṇḍras and Puṇḍras.¹ Pargiter² holds that they were two different tribes occupying two different countries. According to this theory, the Puṇḍras, linked as they were with the Vaṅgas and Kirātas (*Sabhāparvan*, XIV) and with the Aṅgas and Vaṅgas (*Sabhāparvan*, IV), occupied some intermediate position between the Aṅgas, the Vaṅgas, and the hilly countries of the Himalayas. Accordingly, the Puṇḍra country should be identified with Maldah, portions of Purnea, east of the Kosi, and parts of Dinajpur and Rajshahi. The Pauṇḍras, however, linked as they were with the Udras, Utkalas, Mekalas, Kaliṅgas and Āndhras (*Bhīṣmaparvan*, IX; *Droṇaparvan*, IV), occupied the modern district of Santal Parganas and Birbhum and northern portion of Hazaribagh.³ But as the enumeration of the countries and peoples in the Epics and Purāṇas is often loose, the distinction cannot be pushed very far, and in fact it is hardly ever accepted. In later literary and epigraphic records the distinction between Puṇḍra and Pauṇḍra is never maintained.