Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s4: 4. Peoples and their Countries

Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s4

Language
English

4. Peoples and their Countries

c5.s4.1

The Ṛgveda mentions a number of peoples whose territories were apparently known after their own names. This tendency is responsible for the development of the grammatical convention according to which the names of countries were used in the plural in the Sanskrit language. There was a group of five tribes collectively called the Pañca Janāḥ (Mānuṣāḥ, Mānavāḥ and Kṛṣṭayaḥ) who lived on the Sarasvatī and are often identified by scholars with the Anu, Druhyu, Turvaśa and Pūru peoples.⁹⁴

c5.s4.2

⁹⁴ Ibid., Vol. i. pp. 466 ff.

c5.s4.3

Among the various tribes or clans known from the Ṛgveda, we may mention the following.

c5.s4.4

1. Aja—defeated by the Tṛtsus under Sudās in the dāśarājña or battle of the ten kings; fought with the aid of the Yakṣu and Śigru under the leadership of Bheḍa.
2. Anu—mentioned along with clans like the Yadu, Turvaśa, Druhyu and Pūru, the five names being applied in post-Vedic literature to the five sons of king Yayāti of the lunar race; dwelt on the Paruṣṇī.
3. Alina—probably defeated by Sudās together with the Paktha, Bhalānas, Śiva and Viṣāṇin on the Paruṣṇī.
4. Kikaṭa—mentioned in the Ṛgveda (and nowhere else in the Vedic literature); identified with the Magadha in post-Vedic literature, though their location in the age of the Ṛgveda cannot be definitely determined.
5. Kuru—alluded to in the Ṛgvedic reference to the name Kuruśravaṇa and epithet Kaurayāṇa, but mentioned as a people, often jointly with the Pañcāla (cf. Vaikarṇa) and sometimes in association with the Sṛñjaya, in the later Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas; the Ṛgvedic Tṛtsu-Bharata people who defeated the Pūru are supposed to have later merged with their subdued enemies to form the Kuru clan, although the later tradition of the epics and the Purāṇas represents king Kuru as a descendant of kings Bharata and Puru (same as Ṛgvedic Pūru), so that his successors were called Kaurava (or Kuru), Paurava (or Puru) and Bhārata (or Bharata); the Kurus are obviously associated with the Sarasvatī-Dṛṣadvatī valley which became famous as the holy Kurukṣetra (land of the Kuru people) although, as we have seen above, later tradition explains the name by regarding it as the field cultivated by king Kuru of the Paurava-Bhārata clan; the Śāṅkhāyana Śrautasūtra refers to a curse which led the Kurus being driven away from Kurukṣetra. For a northern branch of the Kuru people, see infra.

c5.s4.5

6. Krivi—settled on the Sindhu and Asiknī according to Ṛgvedic evidence; they combined with the Turvaśa and other tribes to give rise to the Pañcāla people; the older name of the Pañcāla according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.

c5.s4.6

7. Gandhārī—later on famous as Gandhāra; the Śatapatha and Aitareya Brāhmaṇas mention Nagnajit the Gandhāra, i.e. king of the Gandhāra, who is mentioned in the Pali literature as the king of Kaśmīra-Gandhāra with his capital at Takṣaśilā; post-Vedic tradition locates the Gandhāra in the Rawalpindi and Peshawar areas.

c5.s4.7

8. Cedi—mentioned in the dānastuti or ‘praise of gifts’ at the end of a Ṛgvedic hymn; later tradition locates them in the Ken valley in Bundelkhand.

c5.s4.8

9. Turvaśa—often mentioned in the Ṛgveda in association with the Yadu, the two being mentioned as brought by Indra from a distant land; they attacked Divodāsa, but were defeated by the latter’s son Sudās; later they merged with the Krivis, etc., to give rise to the Pañcāla people; associated with the Pañcālas according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa; post-Vedic literature spells the name as Turvasu and makes it the name of one of the five sons of Yayāti of the lunar race (cf. Pūru, etc.).

c5.s4.9

10. Tṛtsu—helped Sudās in his battle against the ten kings; intimately associated with the Bharata; members of the royal family of the Bharatas according to some scholars.

c5.s4.10

11. Druhyu—one of the Pañca Janāḥ; their king was defeated by Sudās; Druhyu is regarded in later tradition as the name of one of the five sons of king Yayāti, the others being Anu, Turvasu, Yadu and Puru (cf. Turvaśa and Pūru).

c5.s4.11

12. Paktha—one of the tribes opposing the Tṛtsu-Bharatas in the dāśarājña or battle of the ten kings; identified with the modern Pakhtun people.

c5.s4.12

13. Paṇi—a tribe that opposed Divodāsa; probably a Nonaryan people noted as traders; seem to have been associated with another people called Bekanāṭa, although the word bekanāṭa is often taken to mean ‘a usurer’. Hillebrandt identifies the Paṇi with the Parnians of Iran just as he regards the Dāsa as the same as the Dahae.

c5.s4.13

14. Parśu—Ludwig finds reference in the Ṛgveda to the Parśu or Persian (brought into special relation with the Yadu in viii. 6. 46) and to the Pṛthu or Parthava, i.e. the Parthian.

c5.s4.14

15. Pārāvata—a people living on the Yamunā and probably also on the Sarasvati.

c5.s4.15

16. Pūru—a people living on the Sarasvatī; sometimes mentioned along with the Anu, Druhyu, Turvaśa and Yadu (cf. Pañca Janāḥ); enemies of Sudās in the story of the battle of the ten kings; later merged in the Kuru people; the name is spelt as Puru in the epico-Puranic tradition which makes Puru, Anu, Yadu, Turvasu and Druhyu the five sons of king Yayāti of the lunar race.

c5.s4.16

17. Bharata—enemies of the Pūru; closely associated with the Tṛtsu and living on the Sarasvatī, Āpayā and Dṛṣadvatī; they were merging with the Pūru, Tṛtsu, etc., to form the Kuru people in the age of the Brāhmaṇas, the Mahābhārata regarding the Kurus as descendants of a Paurava king named Bharata.

c5.s4.17

18. Bhalānas—mentioned with the Paktha, Alina, Viṣāṇin and Śiva as enemies of Sudās; they may have lived near the modern Bolan Pass (in Baluchistan) leading from Kachchhi to Sarawan on the route to Kandahar and Ghazni.

c5.s4.18

19. Matsya—ranged with the enemies of Sudās; mentioned in later Vedic literature with the Vaśa or the Sālva, the Manusmṛti making them a people of the Brahmarṣi-deśa along with the Pañcāla and Śūrasenaka; settled in the Alwar-Bharatpur-Jaipur region according post-Vedic tradition.

c5.s4.19

20. Mūjavat—mentioned in the Ṛgveda in the epithet Maujavata applied to Soma; the Yajurveda and Atharvaveda mention them as a distant people sometimes along with the Mahāvṛṣa, Gandhāri and Balhika.

c5.s4.20

21. Yakṣu—mentioned in connection with the battle of the ten kings; fought on the Paruṣṇī and the Yamunā under the leadership of Bheḍa with the aid of the Aja and Śigru; regarded by some as a variant of Yadu.

c5.s4.21

22. Yadu—often mentioned along with the Turvaśa (the two being said to have been brought by Indra from a distant land) and sometimes also with the Anu, Pūru and Druhyu; took part in the battle of the ten kings against Sudās; the name Yadu is applied in post-Vedic tradition to one of the five sons of king Yayāti (cf. Pūru).

c5.s4.22

23. Ruśama—mentioned also in the *Atharvaveda*; cf. Ruṣaṇa of the Purāṇas.

c5.s4.23

24. Varaśikha—the *Bṛhaddevatā* gives the name as Vāraśikha.

c5.s4.24

25. Viṣāṇin—enemies of the Tṛtsu-Bharata people; allied with the Alina, Bhalānas, Śiva and Paktha against Sudās in the battle of the ten kings.

c5.s4.25

26. Vṛcivat—allies of the Turvaśa; contended with the Jahnu tribe for sovereignty, according to the *Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa*.

c5.s4.26

27. Vaikarṇa—identified by some scholars with the combined Kuru-Pañcāla people; the Vikarṇa tribe was settled in Kashmir according to the lexicons.

c5.s4.27

28. Śigru—allied with the Aja and Yakṣu; defeated by king Sudās of the Tṛtsu-Bharata clan in the battle of the ten kings.

c5.s4.28

29. Śimyu—coupled with the Dasyu; defeated by Sudās in the *dāśarājña* or battle of the ten kings.

c5.s4.29

30. Śiva—mentioned along with the Alina, Paktha, Bhalānas and Viṣāṇin in connection with the battle of the ten kings; cf. the Śibi people of the Jhang District mentioned in later works and the name of Śibi, son of Uśīnara, known from the *Baudhāyana Śrautasūtra*, etc.

c5.s4.30

31. Śiṣṭa—mentioned in a Vālakhilya hymn of the *Ṛgveda*.

c5.s4.31

32. Sṛñjaya—closely allied with the Tṛtsu and the enemy of the Turvaśa and Vṛcivat; the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* represents them probably as friends of the Kuru people. They later merged in the Pañcāla.⁹⁵

c5.s4.32

⁹⁵ Ibid., pp. 12, 22, 39, 159, 165ff., 198, 218-19 (cf. p. 126), 263, 315ff, 320ff., 385, 463-64, 471ff., 504-05, 518-19 ; Vol. ii, pp. 11ff., 94h., 99, 121-22, 169-70, 182, 185, 225, 245, 313, 319, 327, 378, 381-82, 383, 469ff.

c5.s4.33

Besides the above, an ancient hero named Ikṣvāku is known from the *Ṛgveda* and *Atharvaveda*,⁹⁶ while the *Ṛgveda*, *Yajurveda* and *Atharvaveda* also speak of a king named Vitahavya, the last work probably representing the Vitahavya as the Sṛñjaya.⁹⁷ A passage in the *Ṛgveda* (ix. 65. 2) uses the word Kṛtvan in the plural along with the Ārjika (living on the Ārjikīyā) and the five peoples. Sāyaṇa takes the word to be the name of a country while Pischel regards it to be a people who may then have been connected with the Kuru and Krivi. But Hillebrandt preferred to take the same word in the sense of ‘magicians’ and as an adjective of the Ārjika. He thinks that his view is supported by a statement of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuên-tsang regarding a barbarian people of the Kashmir region known as Ki-li-to or Kṛtya. But Ki-li-to of the Chinese pilgrim really stands for Kṛta or ‘purchased’ (Chinese Mai-te) and seems essentially to have been a foreign name probably Sanskritised both as Kṛta and Kṛta.⁹⁸

c5.s4.34

⁹⁶ Ibid., Vol. i. p. 75.

c5.s4.35

⁹⁷ Ibid., Vol. ii, pp. 316-17, 328-29.

c5.s4.36

⁹⁸ Cf. Vedic Index, Vol. i, p. 179; Sircar, Indian Epigraphy, p. 256; Beal, Si-yu-ki, Calcutta reprint, Vol. ii, p. 190, note 94.

c5.s4.37

Some of the peoples known from other works of the Vedic literature, besides Jahnu, etc., mentioned above, are the following:

c5.s4.38

1. Aṅga—mentioned in the Atharvaveda along with the Gandhāri, Mūjavat and Magadha as a border people.

c5.s4.39

2. Andhra—mentioned in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa and Śaṅkhāyana Śrautasūtra as outcastes due to the refusal of their progenitors, the 50 elder sons of Viśvāmitra, to accept his adoption of Śunaḥśepa.

c5.s4.40

3. Ambaṣṭha—an Āmbaṣṭhya, ‘king of the Ambaṣṭha’, is known from the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa.

c5.s4.41

4. Uśīnara—inhabited the Middle Country according to the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa.

c5.s4.42

5. Kamboja—known from the Vamśa Brāhmaṇa reference to Kāmboja Aupamanyava

c5.s4.43

6. Kāraskara—mentioned in the Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra, etc.

c5.s4.44

7. Kāśī—inhabitants of Eastern U. P.; known from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, etc.

c5.s4.45

8. Kirāta—Himalayan mountaineers; known from the Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā, etc.

c5.s4.46

9. Niṣāda—known from the later Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas probably as a general name of the Nonaryan tribes which were outside Aryan control unlike the Śūdras; Mahīdhara regards them as identical with the Bhilla, i. e. the modern Bhil.

c5.s4.47

10. Niṣidha—mentioned in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa; spelt as Niṣadha in later literature and located near the Pāriyātra.

c5.s4.48

11. Pañcāla—probably five tribes merged into a single people, two of the five being the Ṛgvedic Krivi and Turvaśa; allied with the Kuru so that the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa mentions the Kuru-Pañcāla together; later tradition locates their capitals in the Bareilly and Farrukhabad Districts of U. P.

c5.s4.49

12. Puṇḍra—mentioned in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa along with Andhra, etc., as outcastes living on the borders of the Aryan-occupied territory; settled in North Bengal before the 3rd century B.C., their capital having been at Puṇḍranagara or Puṇḍravardhana, modern Mahasthan in the Bogra District of East Pakistan.

c5.s4.50

13. Pulinda—an outcaste tribe mentioned along with the Andhra, etc., in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* in connection with the Śunaḥśepa story; the Vindhyan mountaineers.

c5.s4.51

14. Balhika—mentioned in the *Atharvaveda* with the Mūjavat and Mahāvṛṣa; later spelt Bāhlika, etc.; lived in the Balkh region of Northern Afghanistan.

c5.s4.52

15. Magadha—mentioned in the *Atharvaveda* along with the Gandhāri and Mūjavat of the north-west and the Aṅga of the east as a border people; a Māgadha, ‘belonging to Magadha’, is mentioned in the *Yajurveda* and *Atharvaveda*; cf. Kikaṭa of the *Ṛgveda* and post-Vedic literature; the *Śrautasūtras* refer to the Brahmabandhu (bad Brāhmaṇa) living in Magadha though the *Kauṣitaki Āraṇyaka* mentions a respectable Brāhmaṇa who was an inhabitant of Magadha; also spelt Vagadha.

c5.s4.53

16. Madra—mentioned in the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*; settled probably in the Sialkot region; for a northern branch of the Madra people (Uttara-Madra) living in the neighbourhood of the Uttara-Kuru beyond the Himavat according to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (in Kashmir according to some scholars), see *infra*.

c5.s4.54

17. Mahāvṛṣa—mentioned in the *Atharvaveda* along with the Mūjavat; also known from the later Vedic literature.

c5.s4.55

18. Mūcipa, Mūvīpa or Mūtiba—mentioned in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* and *Śāṅkhāyana Śrautasūtra* along with the Andhra, etc., as outcastes living on the borders of the Aryan-occupied territory in Northern India.

c5.s4.56

19. Mleccha—known from the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* to have been barbarian in speech.

c5.s4.57

20. Vaṅga—mentioned in the *Aitareya Āraṇyaka* and *Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra*, in association with the Vagadha or Magadha in the former.

c5.s4.58

21. Vaśa—placed in the Middle Country by the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* along with the Kuru, Pañcāla and Uśīnara, the *Kauṣitaki Upaniṣad* associating them with the Matsya and the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* uniting them with the Uśīnara; regarded by some scholars as identical with the Vatsas of post-Vedic literature.

c5.s4.59

22. Videgha, Videha—mentioned in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* and *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad*, the *Kauṣitaki Upaniṣad* associating them with the Kāśi; settled in North Bihar and the adjoining parts of the Nepalese Tarai.

c5.s4.60

23. Śabara—mentioned in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* as Dasyu along with the Andhra, Pulinda, Mūtiba and Puṇḍra; cf. also the Śunaḥśepa story in the *Śāṅkhāyana Śrautasūtra*.

c5.s4.61

24. Śālva—coupled with the Matsya in the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa*; famous in the epico-Puranic tradition as Śālva; cf. Salva.

c5.s4.62

25. Śvikna—mentioned in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*.

c5.s4.63

26. Sātvat—a people of the south ruled by kings styled Bhoja according to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*; defeated by the Bharata people according to the *Śatapatha*; same as the Sātvata of the epico-Puranic tradition.

c5.s4.64

27. Salva—probably the same as Śālva or Sālva; lived on the Yamunā; mentioned in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, etc.

c5.s4.65

28. Sparśu—a western people known from the *Baudhāyana Śrautasūtra* (cf. Parsu).⁹⁹

c5.s4.66

⁹⁹ *Ibid.*, Vol. i, pp. 11, 23-24, 59-60, 103, 138, 149, 153ff., 157-58, 453-54, 461, 469, 536 ; Vol. ii, pp. 8, 63, 116ff., 123, 142-43, 169, 131, 237, 273, 297, 298-99, 376, 408, 421, 440, 489. Cerapāda in *Ait. Ār.*, II. 1. 1, may be the later Kerala.

c5.s4.67

Besides these, the peoples called Kunti and Dālbhya or Dārbhya are known from the later Vedic literature,¹⁰⁰ while a number of peoples have already been mentioned above as known from the *Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra*.

c5.s4.68

¹⁰⁰ *Ved. Ind.*, Vol. i, pp. 162, 354.

c5.s4.69

In connection with the Kuru and Madra peoples, mention has to be made of the northern branches of the tribes called the Uttara-Kuru and Uttara-Madra whom the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* locates beyond the Himavat. The same work also describes the land of the Uttara-Kuru as *deva-kṣetra* or the land of the gods which was located later in the Purāṇas on and around Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Uttara-Kuru were later regarded as a mythical or semi-mythical people.¹⁰¹ The Kurus of Madhyadeśa are occasionally called Dakṣiṇa-Kuru in the *Mahābhārata*.¹⁰²

c5.s4.70

¹⁰¹ *Ibid.*, Vol. i, pp. 84-85.

c5.s4.71

¹⁰² i. 109. 10. The customs of the Uttara-Kurus are quoted for guidance by a Kuru king (i. 122. 7). Cf. Ptolemy’s Ottorokorrha below.

c5.s4.72

We have referred above to the grammatical convention according to which tribal names in the plural would indicate both the people and the land inhabited by them. Thus the land of the Kuru people is mentioned by the same name in the plural in the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*103 in the passage *maṭaci-hateṣu Kuruṣu* ‘the Kuru country having been devastated by locusts’. The name Vidarbha occurs in later Vedic literature primarily as the name of a territory,¹⁰⁴ although there is no doubt that it was named after a people called Vidarbha. The *Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra* likewise applies the name Śaphāla to the kingdom of Ṛtuparṇa.¹⁰⁵

c5.s4.73

¹⁰⁴ *Ved. Ind.*, Vol. ii, p. 297.

c5.s4.74

¹⁰⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 354.

Linked texts (19)