Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.135

c6.135

Vaṅga (M.B., II, 47, 10). The variant readings are Tuṅgāśca and Ābhīrāḥ. At first it seems that Vaṅgāśca, the reading taken as correct by the editors is wrong, and the correct reading should have been Ābhīrāḥ, as the Ābhīras living in the mountainous regions and subsisting on fish (M.B., II, 29, 9), the equivalent of the Greek Ichthyophagoi of the Makrān coast, are known. But on maturer consideration the reading Vaṅga seems to be right. In the seventh century according to Yuan Chwang¹⁴⁴ the Lang-Kie (ka)—Lo whose Sanskrit form Langar has been found by Julien and Lankar by Watters¹⁴⁵ lived on the Makrān coast. The country according to Yuan Chwang was very rich in precious substances, and naturally therefore its people brought jewels for presentation to Yudhiṣṭhira (M.B., 47, 10). Nothing is known about its precious wealth to-day for the country has never been surveyed for its possible mineral wealth. In the typical Meds who live between Gwāṭar and Sonmiani, there are Meds proper who are fishermen, the Koras seafaring men and a third section of unknown descent called Lāṅga.¹⁴⁶ The alteration of the initials in Lāṅg and Vaṅga, can be explained on the well known principle of Munda Khmer languages. As the initials Aṅga and Vaṅga were alternating in Eastern India, and Kēmboj and Semboj in Cambodia in French Indo-China and Java the same thing was happening on another extreme corner of India—the Makran coast. This could be explained on the basis of the existence of a substratum of Austric language in Bengal and also in as far a country as Makran.