Tribes in Ancient India c59: Chapter LVI. The Prāgjyotiṣas

Tribes in Ancient India c59

Language: English

Chapter LVI. The Prāgjyotiṣas

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If the story of Kṛṣṇa’s fight with the demons Muru and Naraka, as told in the *Viṣṇupurāṇa*,¹ the *Mahābhārata*,² and the *Hari-vamśa*,³ can be interpreted as having an ethnological significance, then undoubtedly the Prāgjyotiṣas were a people of non-Aryan extraction. The Epics definitely describe the country of Prāgjyotiṣas as an *Asura* or *Dānava* kingdom ruled over by the demons, Naraka and Muru, with whom the leaders of Aryanism were in frequent conflict. The Pauranic description of Naraka, the *Asura* leader, attributes to him immense power and a strength that baffled and perplexed even Indra. The environs of his capital city called Prāgjyotiṣapura were defended by nooses constructed by the demon Muru. Of course, the Aryan leader, Kṛṣṇa, is described as having got the better of the fight with the demons, which may be interpreted as one of the exploits in the history of the spread of Aryan influence in the east.

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¹ Wilson’s Ed., 5, XXIX, 88ff. ² *Vanaparvan*, XII, 488; *Udyogaparvan*, XLVII, 1887–92. ³ CXXI, 6791–9; CXXII, 6873, etc. ⁴ *Sabhāparvan*, XXV, 1000-1; *ibid.*, I, 1834; *Udyogaparvan*, CLXVI, 5804; *Karṇaparvan*, V, 104-5. ⁵ *Sabhāparvan*, XII, 578–80; *ibid.*, L, 1834–6. ⁶ Chap. IV. ⁷ *Udyogaparvan*, XVIII, 584-5. ⁸ Wilson’s *Viṣṇupurāṇa*, Bk. V, pp. 54-5. ⁹ *Sabhāparvan*, I, 578-9: ‘*Murum ca Narakam caiva śāsti yo Yavanādhipaḥ aparyantabala-rājā pratīcyāṃ Varuṇo yathā. Bhagadatto mahārājo Vṛddhastavapiṭuḥ sakhā sa vacā praṇatastasya karmaṇā ca viśeṣataḥ.*’

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The *Mahābhārata* in other places⁴ refers to Prāgjyotiṣa as a Mleccha kingdom ruled over by a king named Bhagadatta who is always spoken of in respectful and even eulogistic terms. Bhagadatta is styled a Yavana,⁵ probably denoting that he did not belong to the Aryan fold. The *Udyogaparvan* describes him as the son of Naraka, the Prāgjyotiṣa king, and as an ally of Duryodhana.⁶ Among his retinues Bhagadatta counted the Cīnas (the people of China),⁷ and if the Kālayavana of the *Viṣṇupurāṇa* refers to the same king, as Wilson seems to think,⁸ he also ‘assembled many myriads of Mlecchas and barbarians’ among his followers. The *Mahābhārata* mentions him as a king of boundless might (*aparyanta-bala*) ruling over (the country of) Muru and Naraka.⁹

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According to the *Mahābhārata*, Prāgjyotiṣa was situated in the northern region of India¹; but the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* places it in the eastern region, together with the Brahmottaras (or Suhmottaras), Pravijayas (perhaps Prāvṛseyas), Bhārgavas, Jñeyamallakas, Madras, Videhas, Tāmraliptakas, Mallas and Magadhas; or together with the Candreśvaras, Khaśas, Magadhas, and Lauhityas.² The mountainous regions called Antar-giri, Vahir-giri, and Upa-giri in the *Mahābhārata*³ appear to comprise the lower slopes of the Himalayas and the Nepalese Terai; and it is not unlikely that the Prāgjyotiṣas lived contiguously, as Bhagadatta is called Śailālaya (‘one whose abode is in the mountains’).⁴ According to the *Abhidhānacintāmaṇi*, Prāgjyotiṣa was the same as Kāmarūpa,⁵ though in the *Raghuvamśa* the Prāgjyotiṣas and Kāmarūpas are described as two different peoples. Generally speaking, the two countries came in later times to be regarded as one and the same. In the *Kālikāpurāṇa*,⁶ for example, the capital of Kāmarūpa is called Prāgjyotiṣapura, which has been identified with Kāmākhyā or Gauhāṭī. The *Raghuvamśa* seems to locate Prāgjyotiṣa beyond the Brahmaputra,⁷ but Kālidāsa’s knowledge of distant geographical locations is not always satisfactory. For all practical purposes, Prāgjyotiṣa may, therefore, be identified with the whole of Assam proper, along with Northern Bengal as far as Rungpur and Cooch Behar, which is the territory comprised by Kāmarūpa, according to the *Yoginītantra*.⁸

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¹ Sabhāparvan, XXV, 1000; Vanaparvan, CCLII, 15240-2.

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² Pargiter’s Ed., pp. 327-30, 357.

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³ Sabhāparvan, XXV, 1000—XXVI, 1012.

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⁴ Strīparvan, XXIII, 644.

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⁵ Prāgjyotiṣaḥ Kāmarūpaḥ, IV, 22. The name Kāmarūpa seems to have come into use later.

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⁶ Chap. 38.

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⁷ IV, 81.

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⁸ Imp. Gaz. India, XIV, p. 331.

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King Bhagadatta, as we have seen, was a Mleccha, and his people also Mlecchas or Yavanas, i.e. non-Aryans, but the *Rāmāyaṇa* ascribes the foundation of the kingdom to Amūrtarājas, one of the four great sons of King Kuśa—a significant Aryan name.

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According to the *Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa* and the *Rāmāyaṇa*, there seems to have been another Prāgjyotiṣapura on the river Vetravatī or Betwa.⁹

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⁹ Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, Chap. 27; Rāmāyaṇa, Kiṣkindhyā Kāṇḍa, Chap. 42.

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The later kings of Kāmarūpa, who claimed to have been descended from the line of Narakāsura and Bhagadatta, figured prominently in Indian history. Most important of them was Kumāra Bhāṣkaravarman, an ally of Harṣavardhana Śīlāditya, and referred to both by Bāṇa (in his *Harṣacarita*) and by Hsüan Tsang, the celebrated Chinese pilgrim.

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King Prālamba of Kāmarūpa (c. 800–825 A.D.)¹ is described in the Tezpur plates of his grandson as ‘Prāgjyotiṣeśa’, i.e. ‘ruler of Prāgjyotiṣa’. His grandson Vanamāla claims to belong to the line (anvaya) of the lords of Prāgjyotiṣa, and so also does Balavarman, another king of the same dynasty (c. 975 A.D.). During the earlier half of the eleventh century A.D., the capital city of Prāgjyotiṣa seems to have attained great eminence under the kingship of Ratnapāla. In the Bargaon grant of this king, the city is referred to as impregnable, and rendered beautiful by the Lauhitya (= Brahmaputra river?).²

Linked texts (11)

Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Kālikāpurāṇa — Sanskrit
Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Yoginītantra — Sanskrit
Harṣacarita — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Raghuvaṃśa — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Abhidhānacintāmaṇi — Hemacandra, Sanskrit