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Tribes in Ancient India c72: Chapter LXX. The Pāradas

Tribes in Ancient India c72

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Chapter LXX. The Pāradas

c72.2

The Pāradas, like the Barbaras and Daradas, seem to have been a barbarous hill tribe and are associated in the Puranic and Epic tradition with similar rude tribes of the North (e.g. *Mbh.*, *Sabhāparvan*, L, 1832; LI, 1869; *Droṇaparvan*, CXXI, 4819). In the *Sabhāparvan* of the *Mahābhārata*, they are associated with the Kulindas and Taṅganas (LI, 1858-9). They are mentioned in the *Vāyupurāṇa* (Chap. 88) as well as in the *Harivaṃśa* (I, 14). The *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* at one place (LVII, 37) locates them along with the Kaliṅgas, the Hārabhūṣikas, Mātharas (Ramaṭhas), etc., while at another place (LVIII, 31), with the Śūdras, the Barbaras, the Kirātas the Pāṇḍyas, the Pāraśavas, etc. In the *Sabhāparvan* of the *Mahābhārata* (LI, 1858-9), the Pāradas are said to have dwelt on the river Śaliodā along with the Khasas and the Taṅganas. A collation of Epic and Puranic tradition referred to above shows that the tribe is found mentioned in a list of barbarous and rude tribes with the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pahlavas, Khasas, Māhīṣikas, Coḷas, Keralas, etc. The *Harivaṃśa* states (XIII, 763-4; XIV, 775-83) that King Sagara degraded them and ordered them to have their hair-locks long and dishevelled; according to the same authority they were *mlecchas* and *dasyus*. They also find mention in *Manusmṛti* where it is said that they were originally Kṣatriyas, but were degraded owing to extinction of sacred rites, etc. (X, 43-4). At least one reference in the Great Epic connects the people with the Ābhiras (*Sabhāparvan*, L, 1832).

c72.3

The Rock Edicts of Aśoka give a list of territories that were occupied by vassal tribes; among them figures a tribe named Palidas along with the Andhras, Bhojas and Raṭhikas. The Palidas have often been identified with the Pulindas, but Hultzsch does not accept this identification in view of the fact that the Kālsi and Girnar versions of the relevant portion of the Edicts have the variants Pālada and Pāriṃda. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri thinks that these variants ‘remind us of the Pāradas’. If that be so, then the association of the Pāradas with the Andhras in Asokan inscriptions would suggest ‘that in the Maurya period they may have been in the Deccan. But the matter must be regarded as not definitely settled’.¹

c72.4

¹ *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 259.

c72.5

According to ancient Indian historical tradition as contained in the Epics and the Purāṇas, the Pāradas were one of the allies along with others, namely, the Śakas, the Kambojas, the Yavanas and the Pahlavas, of the Haihaya-Tālajaṅghas that drove Bāhu, the eighth king in descent from Hariścandra, from his throne (Pargiter, *A.I.H.T.*, pp. 206, 268 and f.n.). Pargiter places all these tribes in the north-west.

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