Tribes in Ancient India c9.7

c9.7

In an enumeration in the *Mahābhārata*⁴ of the various peoples of Bhāratavarṣa, the Śūrasenas are mentioned along with the Śālvas, Kuru-Pañcālas and other neighbouring tribes; and we read in the *Virāṭaparvan* (Chaps. I and V) that the Pāṇḍavas passed through the Śūrasena country on their way to Virāṭanagara, from the Dvaitavana forest, where they had sojourned during their exile. It is easy to locate the Śūrasenas, inasmuch as their capital, Mathurā, has been a great city from the early times of Indo-Aryan history down to the present day. They must have occupied ‘the Muttra district and possibly some of the territory still farther south’,⁵ according to the *Cambridge History of India*. Prof. Rhys Davids says⁶: ‘The Śūrasenas, whose capital was Madhurā, were immediately south-west of the Macchas, and west of the Jumna’.