Tribes in Ancient India c72.3

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