Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.440

c6.440

Kirāta.—It is in the Himalayas and is possibly Tibet. According to Ptolemy the Kirātas were located in the Uttarāpatha (cf. McCrindle, *Ancient India*, p. 277). They had their settlements in the eastern region as well. The land of the Kirātas is called Kirrhadia by Ptolemy. Kirrhadia, the country of Kirrhadai, is mentioned in the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* as lying west from the mouth of the Ganges. Ptolemy’s Kirrhadoi or Airrhadoi spread widely not only over Gangetic India but also over countries further east. Pliny and Megasthenes also mention the Kirātas under the name Skyrites. According to Megasthenes they were a nomadic people. For further remarks on the location of the Kirātas, see Lassen, *Indisches Alterthum*, Vol. III, pp. 235-237. They are referred to in the *Mahābhārata* (XII, 207, 43) together with the Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Gandhāras and Barbaras who all dwelt in the northern region or Uttarāpatha. The *Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam* (II, 4, 18) refers to them as living outside the Aryan fold. They are mentioned in the Nāgārjunikoṇḍa Inscription of Virapuruṣadatta. The Kirātas of the Uttarāpatha are castigated as peoples, who lived as criminal tribes with predatory habits like those of the hunters and vultures (B. M. Barua, *Aśoka and His Inscriptions*, p. 100). For references from literature see B. C. Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, pp. 282-83.