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Tribes in Ancient India c8: Chapter IV. The Pañcālas

Tribes in Ancient India c8

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Chapter IV. The Pañcālas

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The Pañcālas, like the Kurus, are most intimately connected with the Vedic civilization of the Brāhmaṇa period. The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*¹ tells us that they were called Krivis in ancient times. In an enumeration of the ancient monarchs who had performed the Aśvamedha sacrifice, a king Kraivya Pañcāla is mentioned, and it is definitely stated that Krivi was the ancient name of the Pañcāla tribe. Krivi appears as a tribal name in the *Ṛgveda*.² Zimmer is of the opinion that the Krivis resided in the region near the Sindhu and the Asiknī in the Punjab, and the authors of the *Vedic Index* express the same view.³ But the only piece of evidence in favour of this hypothesis is that Krivi is mentioned in a verse of a Ṛgvedic hymn, in which the names of those rivers occur in a subsequent verse (VIII, 20, 25). The *Ṛgveda* does not clearly testify to any connection between the rivers and the people.

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¹ XIII, 5, 4, 7. ² *Yābhirdaśasyathā Krivim*, Ṛgveda, VIII, 20, 24; *Yābhiḥ Krivim vāvṛdhuḥ*, Ṛgveda, VIII, 22, 12. ³ *Vedic Index*, I, 198. ⁴ *Altindisches Leben*, 103. ⁵ *Vedic Index*, I, 198. ⁶ *Vaikarṇayoh*, Ṛgveda, VII, 18, 11. ⁷ Wilson, *Ṛgveda*, Vol. IV, p. 59.

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Zimmer⁴ hazards another (more far-fetched) conjecture, viz. that the Pañcālas with the Kurus made up the Vaikarṇa people; and the *Vedic Index*⁵ lends its support to this theory. But the only evidence in support of this view is that the word Vaikarṇa appears in the dual in a verse of the *Ṛgveda*,⁶ and the Kuru-Pañcālas appear combined as a dual people in the Brāhmaṇa literature. We are hardly justified in assuming any connection between these two facts, and moreover, it is doubtful whether ‘Vaikarṇayoh’ in the *Ṛgveda* passage referred to, is a tribal name at all. Wilson following Sāyaṇa translates ‘Vaikarṇayoh’ by ‘on the two banks (of the Paruṣṇī)’.⁷ This meaning agrees very well with the context, as the subject-matter of the hymn is the crossing of the Paruṣṇī by King Sudās.

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In the later Vedic Saṃhitās and the Brāhmaṇa literature, the Pañcālas are frequently referred to, and often combined with the Kurus. The *Kaṭhaka Saṃhitā* (XXX, 2) speaks of the Pañcālas as being the Vaṃśa or people of Keśin Dālbhya, and says that, as a result of certain rites performed by him, they were divided into three parts. The same Saṃhitā (X, 6) refers to the celebration of the Naimiśīya sacrifice in the country of the Kuru-Pañcālas. Here a discussion between Vaka-Dālbhya and Dhṛtarāṣṭra Vaicitravīrya is narrated, but there is nothing to justify Weber's conjecture of a quarrel between the Pañcālas and the Kurus. In the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, the Pañcālas are mentioned along with the Kurus as one of the peoples in the *Madhyamā dik* or midland. Similarly, the Kuru-Pañcālas are mentioned in the Kāṇva recension of the *Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā* (XI, 3, 3,). In the *Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa*, the Kuru-Pañcālas are mentioned many times, and in the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* (I, 2, 9), they are referred to as a dual group beside other similar groups, such as the Aṅga-Magadhas, Kāśī-Kośalas, Śālva-Matsyas, etc. The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* assures us that ‘speech sounds higher here among the Kuru-Pañcālas’,¹ and also informs us that the kings of the Kuru-Pañcālas performed the *rājasūya* or royal sacrifice. The *Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa* (I, 8. 4, I, 2) says that the kings of the Kuru-Pañcālas marched forth on raids in the dewy season and returned in the hot season.² The *Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad* (IV, 1) also speaks of the Kuru-Pañcālas, and in the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* they are repeatedly mentioned,—as, for instance, when we read ³ that the Brāhmaṇas of the Kurus and the Pañcālas flocked to the court of Janaka, king of Videha. A Vedic teacher, Pañcāla-Caṇḍa by name, is mentioned in the *Aitareya* and the *Sāṅkhāyana Āraṇyakas*,⁴ and most probably this sage belonged to the Pañcāla country, as his name suggests.

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¹ *S.B.E.*, Vol. XXVI, p. 50.

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² *Vedic Index*, I, 165.

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³ *Brh. Up.*, III, I, I.

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⁴ *Vedic Index*, I, p. 469.

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The *Bṛhadāraṇyaka* (VI, 1, 1) and *Chāndogya Upaniṣad* (V, 3, 1) tell how Śvetaketu Āruṇeya went to the assembly (*pariṣad*) of the Pañcālas where the Kṣatriya, Pravāhaṇa Jaivali, put to him several questions which neither Śvetaketu nor his father was able to answer. Śvetaketu’s father, though a Brāhmaṇa, was glad to learn the answers to these questions from Pravāhaṇa Jaivali, although the latter was a Rājanya or Kṣatriya.⁵

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⁵ See also *Chāndogya Up.*, I, 8, 1-2, for another mention of Pravāhaṇa Jaivali.

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Several of the Pañcāla kings are mentioned in the Vedic literature. For instance, Durmukha was a great and powerful king of the Pañcālas, who, according to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VIII, 23) made extensive conquests in every direction. Another powerful Pañcāla king who performed the horse sacrifice was Śona Sātrāsāha, about whom several gāthās are quoted in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*.⁶

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⁶ *S.B.E.*, Vol. XLIV, p. 400.

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The name Pañcāla has given rise to much speculation, it being supposed that the first part, Pañca (‘five’), has something to do with five tribes that were merged together into a united nation. The evidence in favour of this hypothesis is not very clear. It has been suggested that the five peoples are the five tribes of the *Ṛgveda*, but, as the *Vedic Index* (I, 469) points out, the suggestion is not very probable. The problem of the origin of the name Pañcāla and its probable connection with Pañca, five, struck the authors of the Purāṇas. Many of them traced the name to five princes, whose names vary slightly in different works. In the *Bhāgavatapurāṇa*, 9th Skandha, Chap. 21, we learn that King Bharmāśva, born in the family of Duṣmanta, had five sons, Mudgala, Yavīnara, Vṛhadviśa, Kāmpilya, and Sañjaya. As these five sons were capable of guarding the five countries, they were named Pañcāla (alam = sufficient for, capable of). Then in the *Viṣṇupurāṇa*, Chap. 19, Aṅka 4, we are told that Haryaśva, born in the family of Kuru, had five sons, Mudgala, Srīñjaya, Vṛhadisu, Pravīra and Kāmpilya. He was under the impression that his five sons were competent to protect five provinces, and they became famous as Pañcālas. The *Vāyupurāṇa* (Chap. 99) tells us that Ṛkṣa, born in the family of Dvimīḍha, had five sons, Mudgala, Srīñjaya, Vṛhadisu, Yaviyāna and Kāmpilya. The provinces of these five afterwards became famous as Pañcāla. Similarly, in the *Agnipurāṇa* (Chap. 278) we read that Vāhyāśva, born in the family of Kuru,¹ had five sons, Mukula, Srīñjaya, Vṛhadiṣu, Yavīnara and Krimila, who were known as Pañcālas. In the *Saṃhitopaniṣad Brāhmaṇa*, there is a reference to the Prācya Pañcālas.²

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¹ Pargiter, *The North Pañchāla Dynasty*, J.R.A.S., 1918, pp. 229 foll.

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² *Vedic Index*, I, p. 469.

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In the Epic, the Pañcāla country is divided into a northern and a southern part, so that evidently the Pañcālas had spread and added to their country by conquest since the Vedic period. There is a Jātaka story about the foundation of Uttara-Pañcāla, which seems to show that a Cedi prince went to the north and formed the Uttara-Pañcāla kingdom with colonists from the Pañcāla and Cedi countries. The *Cetiya Jātaka* tells us that the king of Ceti (Cedi) had five sons. Kapila, the family priest, said to the fourth prince : ‘You leave by the north gate and go straight on till you see a wheel-frame all made of jewels: that will be a sign that you are to lay out a city there and dwell in it, and it shall be called Uttara-Pañcāla.’³

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³ *Jātaka* (Fausböll), III, pp. 460-1.

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The *Mahābhārata* gives a different story of the division of the Pañcāla country. There, in the *Ādiparvan*, we read that the Brahmin Droṇa and Prince Drupada had been friends in their boyhood. But their friendship changed to enmity in their manhood when Drupada, on being raised to the throne, treated the poor Brahmin’s son with contempt. Droṇa, bent upon taking revenge, taught the science of war to the youths of the rival clan of the Kurus and, when their education was completed, he one day called all his pupils together and bade them seize Drupada, King of Pañcāla, in battle, and bring him captive. That, said Droṇa, would be the most acceptable teacher’s fee (*dakṣiṇā*) for him. A great battle ensued, in which the Pañcālas were defeated and their capital attacked. Drupada was seized and offered to Droṇa by his disciples. Droṇa asked Drupada whether he would desire to revive old friendship, and told him that he would grant him half his kingdom as a boon. Drupada accepted the offer. Droṇa then took the northern half of the kingdom which came to be known as Uttara-Pañcāla: while Drupada ruled over the other half, known as Southern Pañcāla. That is to say, the country extending from the river Bhāgīrathī to the river Carmanvatī in the south, with its capital at Kāmpilya, fell to Drupada’s share, and the northern half with its capital at Ahicchatra was taken over by Droṇa.¹

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¹ *Mbh.*, *Ādiparvan*, Chap. 140. Rapson (*Ancient India*, p. 167) says: ‘In history, they (i.e. the Pañcālas) are sometimes divided into two kingdoms—South Pañcāla, the country between the Jumna and Ganges to the east and south-east of the Kurus and Śūrasenas, and North Pañcāla, districts of the United Provinces lying east of the Ganges and north-west of the Province of Oudh . . .’ Cunningham (*Ancient Geography*, p. 360) says: ‘The great kingdom of Pañcāla extended from the Himalaya mountains to the Chambal river’.

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The plain of the Kurus, the (country of the) Matsyas, Pañcālas and Śūrasenakas—these, according to Manu, formed the land of the Brahmarṣis, ranking immediately after Brahmāvarta.²

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² *Manusmhitā*, II, 19.

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One of the earliest cities of Pañcāla was Parivakṛā or Paricakrā, where King Kraivya Pañcāla performed his horse sacrifice.³ Another city, Kāmpila, appears to have been mentioned in the *Yajurveda Saṃhitā*, where ‘the epithet Kāmpila-vāsinī is applied to a woman, perhaps the *mahiṣī* or chief wife of the king, whose duty it was to sleep beside the slaughtered animal of the horse sacrifice (Aśvamedha). The exact interpretation of the passage is very uncertain, but both Weber and Zimmer agree in regarding Kāmpila as the name of the town known as Kāmpilya in the later literature, and the capital of Pañcāla in Madhyadeśa’.⁴ The *Viṣṇupurāṇa* (Chap. II) and the *Bhāgavatapurāṇa* (Chap. 22) say that Kāmpilya, son of King Haryaśva, was celebrated as Pañcāla. Among the hundred sons of Nipa of the Ajamīḍa dynasty, Samara is mentioned as the king of Kāmpilya.⁵ We have seen that Kāmpilya became the capital of King Drupada when he was invested with the sovereignty of the southern Pañcāla country. In the *Ādikāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (Sarga 33) we are told that King Brahmadatta used to live in the city of Kāmpilya. Cunningham identifies Kāmpilya with Kampil, on the old Ganges between Budaon and Farokhabad.¹ According to N. L. Dey,² it was situated at a distance of 28 miles north-east of Fatgarh in the Farokhabad district. It was the scene of the *svayamvara* of Drupada’s daughter, Kṛṣṇā or Draupadī, who became the wife of the five sons of Pāṇḍu. Drupada’s palace is pointed out as the most easterly of the isolated mounds on the bank of the Bur-Gaṅgā.³

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³ *Vide ante*.

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⁴ *Vedic Index*, Vol. I, 149.

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⁵ *Viṣṇupurāṇa*, IV, 19.

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¹ Cunningham, *Ancient Geography*, p. 360; *Uvāsagadasāo*, Vol. II, p. 106.

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² *Geographical Dictionary*, p. 33.

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³ N. L. Dey, *op. cit.*, p. 33. See also *Mahābhārata*, *Ādiparvan*, Chap. 94, pp. 181-2.

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Ahicchatra, where Droṇa established his capital, as we have seen, was another notable town of the Pañcālas. When the Kuru army was marshalled on the field, it is stated that their rear extended as far as the city of Ahicchatra⁴; so that northern Pañcāla was contiguous with the Kuru land, and not very far from the Kuru-kṣetra battle-field. According to Cunningham, the history of Ahicchatra goes back to 1430 B.C. The name is written Ahikṣetra, as well as Ahi-cchatra, but the local legend of the Ādi-Rājā and the Nāga suggests that Ahi-cchatra is the correct form, for Ahicchatra means ‘Serpent Umbrella’. This grand old fort is said to have been built by Rājā Ādi, an Ahir, whose future elevation to sovereignty was foretold by Droṇa, when he found him sleeping under the guardianship of a serpent with expanded hood. The fort is also called Ādikot, but the more common name is Ahicchatra.⁵ The form of the name in Ptolemy by a slight alteration becomes Adisadra, which has been satisfactorily identified with Ahicchatra.⁶ According to V. A. Smith, Ahicchatra City is the modern Rāmnagar in the Bareilly district. It was still a considerable town when visited by Hsüan Tsang in the seventh century.⁷ The name of the city, it appears, was extended to the whole of the country of Uttara-Pañcāla, for we find the Chinese pilgrim giving a description of the ‘country’ of Ahicchatra. He observes that it was about 3,000 li in circuit and the capital about 17 or 18 li. It was naturally strong, being flanked by mountain crags. It produced wheat, and there were many woods and fountains. The climate was agreeable and the people sincere and truthful. They loved religion, and applied themselves to learning. There were about 10 saṅghārāmas and some 1,000 priests who studied the Hīnayāna; and also some 9 deva temples with 300 sectaries. They sacrificed to Īśvara and belonged to the company of ‘ashes-sprinklers’ (Pāśupatas). Outside the chief town was a Nāga tank by the side of which was a stūpa built by King Aśoka. It was here that the Tathāgata (Buddha) preached the law for the sake of a Nāga-rāja for seven days. By the side of it were four little stūpas.¹

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⁴ *Mahābhārata*, V, Chap. 19.

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⁵ Cunningham, *Ancient Geography*, p. 360.

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⁶ McCrindle, *Ancient India as described by Ptolemy*, p. 133.

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⁷ Smith, *Early History of India*, 4th Ed., pp. 391-392.

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¹ Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I, pp. 200-201.

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In modern times, Ahicchatra was first visited by Capt. Hodgson, who describes it as the ruins of an ancient fortress several miles in circumference, which appears to have had 34 bastions, and is known in the neighbourhood by the name of the Pāṇḍu’s fort.²

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² McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, p. 134.

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In the kingdom of Pañcāla there also existed the city of Kānyakubja.³ R. D. Banerjee, on the authority of a copper plate discovered at Khalimpura, points out that the kings of the Bhojas, Matsyas, Kurus, Yadus and Yavanas were forced to acknowledge Cakrāyudha as the king of Kānyakubja.⁴

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³ Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV, p. 246.

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⁴ Vāngalār Itihāsa, Pt. I, pp. 167-8.

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Many are the stories told about the Pañcālas and their dealings with the Kurus. In the Ādiparvan⁵ we read that there was a king named Sambarana, father of Kuru, of the Puru dynasty, who was the ruler of the world. At one time his kingdom was much afflicted, his subjects died, and disorder prevailed everywhere. The kingdom was afterwards conquered by the King of Pañcāla, and Sambarana fled with his wife and children to a forest on the banks of the river Sindhu.

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⁵ Chap. 94, p. 104.

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In connection with the expedition resulting in the victory of Bhīmasena, we note that Bhīmasena went to the east, attacked the Pañcāla country and brought it under his sway.⁶ At the outset of his expedition, Karṇa also attacked Pañcāla, defeated Drupada, and exacted tribute from him and his subordinate kings.⁷

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⁶ Sabhāparvan, Chap. 29, p. 241.

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⁷ Mahābhārata, Vaṅgavāsī Edn., Vanaparvan, Chap. 253, p. 513.

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During the Kurukṣetra war, Drupada, king of the Pañcālas, helped the Pāṇḍavas with his son, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, and an akṣauhiṇī of troops⁸; and Dhṛṣṭadyumna was made the commander-in-chief of the entire Pāṇḍava force. Various kinds of horses are described as having been used by the famous heroes of Pañcāla during the war.⁹ In the Udyogaparvan we read that Yudhāmanyu and Uttamañjā, two other princes of Pañcāla, went to the battle-field.¹ They were killed by Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s army. Mitravarmā and Kṣatradharmā, the Pañcāla heroes, were killed by Droṇa; and Kṣatradeva, son of Śikhaṇḍī, was killed by Lakṣmaṇa, son of Duryodhana.²

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⁸ Udyogaparvan, Chaps. 156-7, pp. 777-8.

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⁹ See Droṇaparvan, Chap. 22, pp. 1012-13.

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¹ Udyogaparvan, Chap. 198, pp. 807-8. See also Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. 19, p. 830.

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² Karṇaparvan, Chap. 6, p. 1169.

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Pañcāla continued to be one of the great and powerful countries of Northern India, down to the time when the Buddha lived. The Aṅguttara Nikāya mentions it as one of the sixteen mahājanapadas of ‘Jambudīpa’, having an abundance of the seven kinds of gems, etc.³ Pañcāla had a large army consisting of foot-soldiers, men skilful in fight and in the use of steel weapons.⁴

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³ Vol. I (P.T.S.), 213; IV, 252, 256, 260.

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⁴ Jātaka (Fausböll), VI, p. 396.

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We read in the Kumbhakāra Jātaka ⁵ that in the kingdom of Uttara-Pañcāla, in the city of Kampilla, there was a king named Dummukha, who became a Pacceka-buddha. We have seen before that Durmukha was the name of one of the powerful Pañcāla sovereigns in the Vedic period. A Pañcāla monarch of the same name is also mentioned in the Jaina works.

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⁵ Ibid., III, p. 379.

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In the Gaṇḍatindu Jātaka we read that during the reign of Pañcāla, king of Kampilla, the people were so much oppressed by taxation that they took their wives and families and wandered in the forest like wild beasts. By day they were plundered by the king’s men and by night by robbers.⁶

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⁶ Ibid., Vol. V, p. 99.

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The Saṃyutta Nikāya narrates that once while the Buddha was staying at Vaiśālī, Visākha of the Pañcālas was in the meeting hall where he distinguished himself by his pious discourse.⁷ Visākha was the son of the daughter of the king of the Pañcālas, and afterwards became known as the Pañcālī’s son. After the death of his father, he succeeded to his title, but when the Buddha came to his neighbourhood, he went to hear him, believed, and left the world.⁸

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⁷ The Book of the Kindred Sayings, II, p. 190.

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⁸ Psalms of the Brethren, pp. 152-3; vide also Thera-therīgāthā, P.T.S., p. 27.

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Pañcāla and its princes also figure in the Jaina literature. It is stated in the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra that the king of the Pañcālas did no fearful actions.⁹ The Jain writers also refer to Brahmadatta, king of the Pañcālas,¹⁰ and to Dvimukha of Pañcāla, who was a Pratyekabuddha.¹¹

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⁹ S.B.E., Vol. XLV, Jaina Sūtras, Pt. II, p. 60.

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¹⁰ Ibid., p. 61.

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¹¹ Ibid., p. 87.

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In the post-Aśokan period Pañcāla was invaded by the Greeks, as we infer from the *Gārgī Saṃhitā*, which is dated about the second or third century A.D.¹

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¹ See Max Müller, *India, What can it teach us?* 1883, p. 298.

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In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the Pañcālas were a monarchical clan, but became a *saṅgha* (probably an oligarchy) in the fourth century, when Kauṭilya lived. In Kauṭilya’s *Arthaśāstra* we read that the corporation of Pañcāla ‘lived by the title of *rājā*.’² The change was very probably brought about in the following way. Members of the royal family were often given a share in the administration of a country, and in proportion as this share became less and less formal, the state organization would lose the form of absolute monarchy and approach that of an oligarchy.³

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² ‘*Rājaśabdopajīvinaḥ*’—*Arthaśāstra*, Shāma Śāstri’s Translation, p. 455.

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³ *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, p. 165.

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Sir Charles Eliot notes that the kingdom of Pañcāla passed through troublous times after the death of Harṣavardhana, but from about 840-910 A.D. under Bhoja and his son, it became the principal power in Northern India, extending from Bihar to Sind. In the twelfth century, it again became important under the Gaharwar dynasty.⁴

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⁴ *Hinduism and Buddhism*, Vol. I, p. 27.

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In the district of Bareilly in the United Provinces, many old copper coins have been discovered amongst the ruins of ancient Ahicchatra. The word ‘mitra’⁵ occurs at the end of the names of the kings engraved on the coins. In many places of the United Provinces, coins of this kind are discovered every year. There are three symbols above the names of the kings. Carlyle of the Archaeological Dept. explains the symbols as Bodhi tree, Śivaliṅgam surrounded by snakes, and stūpa covered by fungus. Such coins are found in large numbers at Ahicchatra, so Cunningham calls them Pañcāla-mudrā. They generally weigh 250 grs., the smaller ones weighing not less than 16 grs.⁶ According to the *Cambridge History*,⁷ several Pañcāla coins have on the obverse Agni, with head of flames, standing between posts on railing, on the reverse, in incuse, Agimitasa; above, three symbols. Whether Agnimitra whose coins are found in North Pañcāla and who was, therefore, presumably king of Ahicchatra, can be identified with the Śuṅga king of that name, is uncertain.⁸

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⁵ For a detailed discussion, see B. C. Law, *Pañcālas and their Capital Ahichchhatra*, M.A.S.I., No. 67, pp. 12 foll.

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⁶ R. D. Banerjee, *Prācīna Mudrā*, pp. 106-7.

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⁷ *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, p. 538.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, p. 520.

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The method of striking the early coins was peculiar, in that the die was impressed on the metal when hot, so that a deep square incuse, which coins the device, appears on the coin. A similar incuse appears on the later double-die coins of Pañcāla, Kauśāmbī, and on some coins of Mathurā. This method of striking may have been introduced from Persia, and was perhaps a derivative from the art of seal-engraving.¹ Brown says that there is little foreign influence traceable in the die-struck coins, all closely connected in point of style, which issued during the first and second centuries B.C. from Pañcāla, Ayodhyā, Kauśāmbī and Mathurā. A number of these bear Brāhmī inscriptions and the names of ten kings, which some would identify with the old Śuṅga dynasty, have been recovered from the copper and brass coins of Pañcāla, found in abundance at Rāmnagar in Rohilkhand, the site of the ancient city, Ahicchatra.²

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¹ Brown, *Coins of India*, p. 19.

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² *Ibid.*, p. 20.

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