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Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c16: XII. Vāhlika and Vāhika

Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c16

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XII. Vāhlika and Vāhika

c16.1

Elsewhere we have tried to show that very often in inscriptions and literary works we get, in connection with the description of a powerful king's *dig-vijaya* (conquest of the four quarters, or of 'the whole earth'), the traditional boundaries of the conventional *cakravarti-kṣetra*.¹ These boundaries are generally: (1) The Himālaya, Badarikāśrama on the Gandhamādana, the country near the Vaṃkṣu (Oxus), or the like, in the north; (2) the Udaya mountain (mythical), the Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal), the Lauhitya, Vaṅga, or the like, in the east; (3) the Malaya mountain, the Mahendra mountain, the Southern Sea (Indian Ocean), Ceylon, or the like, in the south; and (4) the Asta mountain (mythical), the Mandara mountain (mythical), the Western Sea (Arabian Sea), the Pārasika country, or the like, in the west. In that connection we have also tried to prove that the Meharauli pillar inscription describing the *dig-vijaya* of a king named Candra (i.e. Candragupta II) in the verses:

c16.2

¹ See above, pp. 8 ff.

c16.3

यस्योद्वर्तयत: प्रतीपमुरसा शत्रून्समेत्यागतान
वङ्गेष्वाहववर्तिनोऽभिलिखिता खड्गेन कीर्तिर्भुजे ।
तीर्त्वा सप्त मुखानि येन समरे सिन्धोर्जिता वाह्लिका
यस्याद्याप्यधिवास्यते जलनिधिर्वीर्यानिलैर्दक्षिण: ।।²

c16.4

² *Corp. Ins. Ind.*, III, p. 141, verse 1.

c16.5

gives the following boundaries of the *Cakravarti-kṣetra*: (1) Vāhlika (spelt also with *b* for *v* and *ī* for *i*) in the north; (2) Vaṅga in the east; (3) Southern Sea in the south and (4) the seven mouths of the Indus (all falling into the Western or Arabian Sea) in the west. The Vāhlika-Bāhlika-Vāhlika-Bāhlika country is certainly the modern Balkh region on the Oxus in the northern part of Afghanistan.³

c16.6

³ See above, p. 23, note 6.

c16.7

According to a celebrated historian,¹ the country of the Vāhlikas mentioned in the Meharauli pillar inscription, which speaks of the pillar being raised on the Viṣṇupada, has to be placed on the Beas (Vipāśā) on the strength of a verse found in the *Rāmāyaṇa* as follows :

c16.8

¹ See D.R. Bhandarkar in *Journ. Andh. Hist. Res. Soc.*, Vo. X, pp. 86 ff.

c16.9

ययुर्मध्येन वाह्लीकान्सुदामानं च पर्वतम् ।
विष्णोः पदं प्रेषमाणा विपाशां चापि शाल्लीम ॥²

c16.10

² *Rāmāyaṇa*, II, 68, verses 18-19.

c16.11

"They went through the Vāhlika country to Mount Sudāman, viewing Viṣṇupada and also the Vipāśā and the Śālmali."

c16.12

And the following conclusion has been drawn on the basis of it : "It will be seen from this verse that Viṣṇupada, Vipāśā and Śālmali, if not even Sudāman, were all in the Vāhlika country and close to one another......... these places were in the close proximity of the Vipāśā which, we know, is the modern Beas, where it is joined by another river, the Śālmali."³

c16.13

³ *Op. cit.*, p. 87.

c16.14

The suggestion that the country watered by the Beas was called Vāhlika or Bāhlika is however certainly wrong. Numerous passages can be quoted from the epic, Puranic and classical Sanskrit literature to prove that the Punjab=Pañcanada, 'the land of the Five Rivers' (one of the five being the Beas), was in ancient times called the Vāhika country, and there is absolutely no doubt that the reading *Vālhikān* in the passage quoted from the *Rāmāyaṇa* is a mistake for *Vāhikān*. A flood of light on the ancient Vāhika country and its people is thrown by several chapters of the Karṇaparvan of the *Mahābhārata*. We have therein (Ch. 44) the following verses regarding the geography of this country :

c16.15

पञ्चानां सिन्धुषष्ठानां नदीनां येऽन्तरा स्थिताः ।
तान्धर्मबाह्यानशुचीन्वाहीकानपि वर्जयेत् ॥ ७
* * * *
साकलं नाम नगरमापगा नाम निम्नगा ।
जातिका नाम वाहिकास्तेषां वृत्तं सुनिन्दितम् ॥ १०
* * * *

c16.16

पञ्च नद्यो वहन्त्येता यत्र पीलुवनान्युत । शतद्रुश्च विपाशा च तृतीयैरावती तथा ।। ३१ चन्द्रभागा वितस्ता च सिन्धुष्ष्ठा बहिंगिरे । आराट्टा नाम ते देशा नष्टधर्मा न तान्त्रजेत् ।। ३२
* * * पञ्चनद्यो वहन्त्येता यत्र निःसृत्य पर्वतात् । आराट्टा नाम वाहीका न तेष्वार्यो द्व्यहं वसेत् ।। ४०

c16.17

The above verses and several others from the Karṇaparvan (Chs. 44-45) prove that the kingdom (or the people) over which Śalya ruled was generally referred to as Pañcanada or Vāhīka and specifically as Madraka, Jārtika and Āraṭṭa. In other words, the Madrakas, Jārtikas and Āraṭṭas were generally designated as Pañcanada and Vāhīka. There is however one verse which suggests that Vāhīka was originally the name of a country or people on the Beas (Vipāśā) :

c16.18

वहिश्च नाम हीकश्च विपाशायां पिशाचको । तयोरपत्यं वाहीका नैषा सृष्टिः प्रजापतेः ।।¹

c16.19

¹ *Mahābhārata*, Karṇaparvan, Ch. 44. verse 10. The Madrakas lived in the Sialkot region. The Jārtikas are the modern Jāts.

c16.20

"In the Vipāśā, there were two Piśācas named Vahi and Hika; their descendants are called the Vāhīkas who are not the creation of Prajāpati."

c16.21

The geography of this well-known Vāhīka country has been discussed by a number of scholars. Reference may be made to Cunningham’s *Ancient Geography of India*, Calcutta, 1924, pp. 247, 686-87, and V. S. Agrawala’s ‘Patañjali and the Vāhīka-grāmas’ in the *Indian Culture*, Vol. VI 1939, pp. 129 ff. In view of the voluminous evidence regarding the existence of a Vāhīka country near the Vipāśā, no Vāhlīka (which is no doubt a mislection for Vāhīka) country can be located in the same region on the strength of a solitary passage of the *Rāmāyaṇa*.

c16.22

If the Vāhīkas were originally a people living on the Beas, we have to explain how the sense of the word Vāhīka expanded so as to indicate all the tribes living in Pañcanada, i.e. the Punjab. It is interesting in this connection to note that the *Mahābhārata* sometimes uses the terms Vāhīka, Madra, Jārtika, Āraṭṭa and Pañcanada synonymously. It therefore appears that the lands of the tribes which lived close to one another in the Punjab became in course of time moulded into a big kingdom under the powerful kings of Śākala (Sialkot). As Vāhika was beyond Kuru-kṣetra and therefore say outside the boundary of Brahmāvarta,¹ its analogical connection with the word *bahis* may have been another cause of the expansion of its geographical sense.

c16.23

¹ Ibid., VII, 41, 6

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