Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.64

c6.64

*Ambaṣṭha Country.*—The country of the Ambaṣṭhas was situated on the lower Chenab. The *Mahābhārata* (II, 48, 14) and the *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* (X. 83, 23) refer to it. It is also mentioned in the *Brahmāṇḍap.* (III. 74, 22), *Matsyap.* (48. 21), *Vāyu* (99. 22), and *Viṣṇu* (II. 3. 18). Pāṇini also refers to it in one of his *sūtras* (VIII. 3. 97). As early as the time of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 21-3) they probably settled themselves in the Punjab. The *Mahābhārata* (II, 52, 14-15) mentions them as north-western tribes. They were intimately connected with the Śivis and the Yaudheyas and were settled on the eastern border of the Punjab (Pargiter, *Ancient Indian Historical Tradition*, 109, 264). During the first quarter of the 2nd century A.D. the Ambaṣṭhas are referred to by the geographer Ptolemy as the tribe which is described as settled in the east of the country of the Paropanisadai (McCrindle, *Ancient India as described by Ptolemy*, pp. 311-12). They seem to have migrated in later times to some place near the Mekala hill which is the source of the Narmadā (B. C. Law, *Tribes in Ancient India*, pp. 97, 374). For further details vide B. C. Law, *Indological Studies*, I, 31ff.