Tribes in Ancient India c70.22

c70.22

In the *Kiṣkindhyā Kāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa*, we read that when Sugrīva sent his monkey host to search for Sītā, those under Aṅgada made their enquiries throughout the countries of the Matsyas and the Kaliṅgas, two peoples situated ‘at the two extremities of India’. When speaking⁸ about the country of the Śūrasenas and the Kurus and Bharatas who were the immediate neighbours of the Matsyas, Sugrīva does not refer to the Matsyas at all, although as we have seen, the Śūrasenas and Matsyas were constantly associated in the Paurāṇic age. This omission suggests that at the time of the *Rāmāyaṇa* the Matsyas were not regarded as an important people: perhaps they had lost the importance which they had acquired in the Vedic age.