Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c5.97

c5.97

Now let us examine the information we get in the conquest of Madhyamikā by Nakula. The first important point is that the city must have been defended by the Vāṭadhāna Brāhmaṇas and that they were conquered. There is every possibility that the event here points to the siege of Madhyamikā, a town which has been identified with Nagarī near Chittor in Southern Rājputānā⁶³—the action being cleverly transferred from the Yavanas to Nakula. The probability is that the Śuṅgas were the Vāṭadhāna Brāhmaṇas as Vaṭa and Śuṅga both in Sanskrit mean Banyan tree. It is curious to note, however, that according to the *Manu-Smṛti* the Vāṭadhānas were the offspring of an outcaste Brāhmaṇa by a Brāhmaṇa mother (X, 21).