Tribes in Ancient India c8.4

c8.4

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.