Tribes in Ancient India c75.4

c75.4

The Daśārṇa country in the west seems to have been more important than the other localities in the east or south-east. According to the *Meghadūta* (verses 24-5), the capital of this Daśārṇa country was Vidisa (mod. Bhilsā) on the Vetravatī (= mod. Betwā). The Daśārṇas thus occupied a site on the Daśārṇa river (which can still be traced in the modern Dashān river that flows through Bundelkhand, rising in Bhopal and emptying into the Betwa). According to Wilson,² a Daśārṇa river is said in the Purāṇas to rise in a mountain called Citrakūṭa (= Kāmptānāth-gir in Bundelkhand). This is doubtless identical with the modern Dashān river. The *Meghadūta* further mentions a hill called Nīcaḥ as situated in the Daśārṇa country (*loc. cit.*).