Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s4.4

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.