Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.556

c6.556

The Mālavas seem to have occupied their territory in the Punjab for some time afterwards. The *Mahābhārata* (Droṇaparva, Ch. X, p. 17; Sabhāparva, Ch. 32, p. 7) probably locates them in the same place when it couples them with the Trigarttas, Śivis and Ambaṣṭhas. But before long they seem to have migrated southwards and settled somewhere in Rajputana where they seem to have held their ground at the time of Samudragupta. The Mālava occupation of the Nāgar area near Jaipur in Rajputana is proved by the Nasik Cave Inscription of Uṣavadāta the Śaka, son-in-law of Kṣatrapa Nahapāna. The Scythian invasions and conquests could not destroy the tribal organization of the Mālavas, for they are mentioned in the list of tribal states of the western and south-western fringe of Āryāvarta mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta. The name of the Mālavas is also associated with the wellknown Kṛta or Mālava-Vikrama era (cf. Mandasor Inscription of Naravarman, C.I.I., Vol. III). In the Purāṇas we find the Mālavas associated with the Saurāṣṭras, Avantīs, Ābhīras, Śūras and Arbudas, and are described as dwelling along the Pariyātra mountains (Bhāgavatapurāṇa, XII, I, 36; Viṣṇupurāṇa, Bk. II, Ch. III; Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Ch. XIX, v. 17). In later epigraphic records we have mention of Sapta-Mālavas, i.e., seven countries called Mālavas (E.I., V, 229; A.B.O.R.I., Vol. XIII, Pts. 3-4, 1931-32, p. 229). For further details vide B. C. Law, Indological Studies, Pt. I, pp. 27ff.; B. C. Law, Tribes in Ancient India, Ch. VIII.