Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.554

c6.554

*Mālava*.—According to the Jaina *Bhagavatīsūtra* the Mālava country is included in the list of the sixteen *Mahājanapadas*. The Mālava tribe is mentioned in the *Mahābhāṣya* of Patañjali (IV. 1. 68). The people of this country known as the Mālavas were settled in the Punjab. But it is difficult to locate exactly the territory they occupied. Smith thinks that they occupied the country below the confluence of the Jhelum and the Chenab, i.e., the country comprising the Jhang district and a portion of the Montgomery district (*J.R.A.S.*, 1903, 631). According to McCrindle they occupied a greater extent of territory comprising the modern Doab of the Chenab and the Ravi and extending to the confluence of the Indus and the Akesines identical with the modern Multan district and portions of Montgomery (*Invasion of India*, App. note 357). Some have located them in the valley of the lower Rāvi on both banks of the river (Raychaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 205).