Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.474

c10.474

Vidarbha.—It is modern Berar. The people of Vidarbha are referred to by Daṇḍin in his *Kāvyādarśa* (I, 40). The people of this place, according to the *Purāṇas*,³ were the dwellers of the Deccan (*Dakṣiṇāpathavāsinah*) along with the Pulindas, Daṇḍakas, Vindhyas and others. Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya* (I. 4. 1, p. 634) mentions Vaidarbha. The *Yoginītantra* (2. 4) has a reference to it. The *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* mentions it as a country (IV. 28, 28; IX. 20, 34; X. 52, 21, 41; X. 84, 55). The *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (XIV. 8) also mentions it. According to the *Mahābhārata* Vidarbha was the kingdom of Damayantī, Nala’s queen. In the Vidarbha country lived one Puṇyavarmā, the jewel of the Bhoja royal family, who was a partial incarnation of virtue. He was powerful, truthful, self-disciplined, glorious, lofty, and vigorous in mind and body. He disciplined his people and made masterpieces his model. He caressed the wise, impressed his servants, blessed his relations and distressed his foes. He was deaf to illogical discourse and insatiable in the thirst for virtue. He was a penetrating critic of ethical and economic compendia. He controlled all functionaries watchfully and encouraged the conscientious by gifts and honours. He filled the life of a man with worthy deeds.⁴ Kālidāsa in his *Mālavikāgnimitram* (Act V, 20) tells us that the Śuṅga dynasty was founded along with the establishment of a new kingdom at Vidarbha. Agnimitra’s minister refers to the kingdom as one established not long ago (*acirādhiṣṭhita*) and compares its king to a newly planted tree (*navasamropanasithilastaru*). The king of Vidarbha is represented as a relation of the Maurya minister and a natural enemy of the Śuṅgas.⁵ During the reign of Bṛhadratha Maurya there were two factions in the Magadhan empire, the one headed by the king’s minister and the other by his general. The minister’s partisan Yajñasena was appointed governor of Vidarbha. He declared his independence and commenced hostilities against the usurping family when the general usurped the throne. Kumāra Mādhavasena, a cousin of Yajñasena and a partisan of Agnimitra, was arrested and kept in custody by Yajñasena’s warden when the former was on his way to Vidiśā. This led the Śuṅga monarch Agnimitra to ask Virasena to attack Vidarbha. Yajñasena was defeated and the kingdom of Vidarbha was divided between the two cousins,⁶ the river Varadā forming the boundary between the two states. Vidarbha was conquered by the son of Queen Gautamī Balaśrī according to the Nasik cave inscription (Raychaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th ed., 309ff.; B. C. Law, *Indological Studies*, Pt. I, p. 50). For further details vide Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, pp. 49, 100, 123, 174 and 389.