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Tribes in Ancient India c62.s2: The Uḍras

Tribes in Ancient India c62.s2

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The Uḍras

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The earliest mention of the Uḍras or Oḍras or Auḍras as a people is, perhaps, found in the following śloka of the Mānavadharmaśāstra where the Oḍras are classed as outside the Brahmanical pale (i.e. Mlecchas) along with the Pauṇḍrakas, Drāviḍas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Śakas, Pāradas, Pahlavas, Cīnas, Kirātas, Daradas and Khaśas.

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Sanakaistu kriyālopādimāḥ kshatriyajātayaḥ
Vṛṣalatvam gatā loke brāhmaṇādarśanena cha
Pauṇḍrakāśchaudra Drāviḍa Kamboja Yavanāḥ Śakāḥ
Pāradaḥ Pahlavaśchaināḥ Kirātā Daradāḥ Khaśāḥ.

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The Apadāna, a work of the Pāli Canon, mentions Oḍḍakā who were the same as Oḍrā or Uḍrā.⁵

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⁵ Pt. II, p. 358.

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Pliny in his *Natural History* mentions the Oretes as a people of India in whose country stood Mount Maleus which in another passage he locates amongst the Monedes and Suari. Cunningham identifies the last two peoples as the Muṇḍas and Suars, from which he is led to conclude that the Oretes must be the people of Orissa. But it must be remembered that even then we cannot definitely equate the Greek Oretes with the Sanskrit Oḍra or Uḍra or Auḍradeśa.

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Epic tradition connects the Uḍras along with the Poṇḍras, Utkalas, Mekalas, Kaliṅgas and Andhras.⁶ According to the *Brahmapurāṇa* (28, 29, 42) which is admittedly very late, the country of the Oḍras extended northwards to Vrajamaṇḍala (Jājpur), and consisted of three *kṣetras* called Purushottama or Śrīkshetra, Savitu or Arkakshetra, and Birajākshetra through which flew the river Vaitaraṇī. But it is somewhat strange that nowhere in early inscriptions do we find any mention of the people and their country. The first elaborate account of the people and their country is found in the itinerary of Hsüan Tsang. From Karṇasuvarṇa the pilgrim travelled south-west for about 722 *li* and came to the Wu-t’u or U-cha country.

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⁶ Vanaparvan, LI, 1988; Bhīṣmaparvan, IX, 365; Droṇaparvan, IV, 122.

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‘The country was above 7,000 *li* in circuit, and its capital above 20 *li*. The people were of violent ways, tall and of dark complexion, in speech and manners different from the people of “Mid-India”. They were indefatigable students and many of them were Buddhists. There were above 100 Buddhist monasteries, and a myriad brethren, all Mahāyānists. Of deva temples there were fifty, and the various sects lived pell-mell. Near the shore of the ocean in the south-east of this country was the city Che-li-ta-lo (= Charitrapura = Puri?), above 20 *li* in circuit which was a thoroughfare and resting-place for sea-going traders and strangers from distant lands.’¹

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¹ Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, pp. 193-4.

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About a century later the country of the Oḍras became involved in chaos which has been described as *mātsyanyāya* in contemporary records. The celebrated Tibetan historian Tārānāth in his History of Buddhism records that Oḍiviśa, Vaṅga and five other countries of the east plunged themselves in a chaotic political condition² from which they were rescued by the election of King Gopāla on the throne. Oḍiviśa of Tārānāth is certainly a corruption or adaptation of Oḍra-viṣaya. Oḍiviśa is further mentioned by Tārānāth in connection with the reign of Devapāla who is credited by him as having ‘brought into submission the kingdom of Varendra in the east and afterwards the province of Oḍiviśa’.

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² ‘There was no longer any member of it (the royal family of the Candras) a king; in Oḍiviśa, in Vaṅga, and the other five provinces to the east, each Kṣatriya, Brāhmaṇa, and merchant, constituted himself king of his surroundings, but there was no king ruling the country.’—Tārānāth, *Ind. Ant.*, IV, 1875, pp. 365-6.

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The Tirumalai Rock Inscription of the thirteenth year of King Rājendra Coḷa credits the king as having seized by his great warlike army the Oḍḍa-viṣaya in the course of his northern expedition. This Oḍḍa-viṣaya is certainly identical with Oḍra-viṣaya. The Coḷa king, Rāja-rāja, is also said to have conquered the Oḍḍa country. Doubtless, during this period, Oḍḍa-viṣaya came to mean the whole of the present Orissa country.

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