Tribes in Ancient India c9.2

c9.2

The Śūrasenas are not mentioned in the Vedic literature, but in the *Mānavadharma-śāstra* they are spoken of in high terms as belonging to the Brahmarṣi-deśa, or the country of the great Brahmanical seers, whose conduct was an example to all Aryans.¹ Accordingly at the time of Manu’s Code (between the second century B.C. and the second century A.D.), the Śūrasenas were among the tribes who occupied a rank in Indo-Aryan society second only to that of the small population of the narrow strip of Brahmāvarta. Therefore they must have belonged to the Vedic people, though probably they had not acquired sufficient political importance in very early times to find a mention in the *Ṛgveda* or the subsequent Vedic literature. They claimed descent from Yadu, a hero whose people are repeatedly referred to in the *Ṛgveda*²; and it is probable that the Śūrasenas were included among the Ṛgvedic Yadus.