Tribes in Ancient India c76.4

c76.4

As already noticed, there are two variant forms of the mountainous region inhabited by this people, as given in the Purāṇas: Pāriyātra and Pāripātra; Pāripātra seems to be the more usual reading, though Pāriyātra occurs not infrequently. In the topographical list of the Purāṇas, the Pāriyātra or Pāripātra hills are mentioned as one of the seven hill ranges together forming the Kulācalas or Kulaparvatas, ‘family mountains’, i.e. mountain ranges or systems. These are the Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Śuktimat, Ṛkṣa, Vindhya and Pāripātra.² The Bhāgavata, Vāyu, Mārkaṇḍeya and Padma Purāṇas and the Bhīṣmaparvan of the Mahābhārata add a list of inferior mountains to these seven.³ The seven principal hill ranges are similarly enumerated by all the Puranic authorities, and their situation is easily determined by the rivers which are listed as flowing from them.