Historical Geography of Ancient India c10.485

c10.485

But the earliest reference to the tribe is probably made in Pāṇini. In na prācya Bhargādi Yaudheyādibhyaḥ (IV. I. 178) the term ‘Yaudheyādi’ includes the two tribes, the Yaudheyas and the Trigarttas. Elsewhere in the sūtras (V. 3. 117), the Yaudheyas, counting of course the Trigarttas with them, are referred to as forming an Ayudha jīvisamgha or a tribal republican organization depending mainly on arms, i.e., a warrior tribe. But the historical tradition of the tribe goes still earlier. The Purāṇas¹ refer to the Yaudheyas as having been descended from Uśinara. The Harivaṃśa, too, connects the Yaudheyas with the Uśinaras (Harivaṃśa, Ch. 32; cf. also Pargiter, Mārk. P., p. 380). Pargiter thinks that King Uśinara established separate kingdoms on the eastern border of the Punjab, namely, those of the Yaudheyas, Ambaṣṭhas, Navarāṣṭra, and the city of Kṛmila; and his famous son Śivi Auśinara originated the Śivis in Śivapura (A.I.H.T., p. 264). That the Yaudheyas were settled in the Punjab is also proved by their association with the Trigarttas, Ambaṣṭhas, and Śivis. In the Mahābhārata (Droṇa Parva, Ch. 18, 16; Karṇa Parva, Ch. 5, 48) the Yaudheyas are described as being defeated by Arjuna along with the Mālavas and Trigarttas. In the Sabhā Parva (Ch. 52, 14-15) they along with the Śivis, Trigarttas and Ambaṣṭhas are represented as having assembled and paid their homage to Yudhiṣṭhira. Elsewhere in the Great Epic (Droṇa Parva, Ch. 159, 5) the tribe is mentioned along with the Adrijas (= the Adraistai of the Greeks ?), Madrakas and Mālavas (Yaudheyādrijān rājan Madrakān Mālavānapi).