Tribes in Ancient India c7.23

c7.23

Besides the Kurus of the Madhyadeśa, we find references to another Kuru people, viz. the Uttara-Kurus. The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* mentions the country of the Uttara-Kurus in its chapter on the *mahābhiṣeka* of Indra (*Ait. Br.*, VIII, 14; Tr. Keith’s *Ṛgveda Brāhmaṇas*, pp. 330-1). The authors of the *Vedic Index* are of the opinion that the Uttara-Kurus were a historical people at the time when this passage of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* was written. They observe: ‘The Uttara-Kurus, who play a mythical part in the Epic and later literature, are still a historical people in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, where they are located beyond the Himalaya (*pareṇa Himavantam*). In another passage, however, the country of the Uttara-Kurus is stated by Vāsiṣṭha Sātyahavya to be a land of the gods (*deva-kṣetra*), but Jānamtapi Atyarāti was anxious to conquer it, so that it is still not wholly mythical. It is reasonable to accept Zimmer’s view that the northern Kurus were settled in Kaśmīr, especially as Kurukṣetra is the region where tribes advancing from Kaśmīr might naturally be found.²