Tribes in Ancient India c75.6

c75.6

As we have seen, the Purāṇas associate the Daśārṇas with the Vindhyan tribes,—Mālavas, Kārūṣas, Mekalas, Utkalas, and Niṣadhas. In the *Rāmāyaṇa*, also their country is connected with those of the Mekalas and Utkalas, whither Sugrīva sends his monkey army in quest of Sītā (*Kiṣkindhyā K.*, *loc. cit.*). The Daśārṇa country of the *Rāmāyaṇa* and the Purāṇas is thus different from the Daśārṇa of the *Meghadūta*; it is probably identical with Dosarene of the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*. According to Wilson,³ eastern or south-eastern Daśārṇa formed a part of the Chattisgarh District in the Central Provinces, including the native State of Patna.¹ The territory was probably situated on the river Dosaron which is mentioned by Ptolemy, and which has been identified with the river Brāhmaṇī that flows through modern Cuttack and empties itself into the Bay of Bengal. As Ptolemy did not write from personal knowledge, he could not probably give the indigenous name of the river, but named it after the people inhabiting the region. Thus 'the Dosaron is the river of the region inhabited by the Daśārṇas, a people mentioned in the Viṣṇupurāṇa as belonging to the south-east of Madhyadeśa'.²