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The Mauryan Polity c6.s2.t1: Rāja-Viṣayas

The Mauryan Polity c6.s2.t1

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Rāja-Viṣayas

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Within the imperial territorial limits were several political communities which, we may, for the sake of convenience, call “sovereign states within the empire”. A peculiarity about them is that these were not under the direct rule of the emperor though they were inside the empire. Their constitution was of republican character.⁵ These were several in number and on all parts of the Empire. In the south and south-west, communities possessing such republican character are the Āndhras, Bhojas, Rāṣṭrikas and Pulindas. The classical writings refer to the vastness of the territory, and the fertility of the soil of the Āndhras (Andaræ).⁶

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⁵ *Hindu Polity*, Part I, p. 142.

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⁶ *Ind. Ant.*, 1877, p. 339.

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The Āndhras are known to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII. 18) as also the Pulindas and the Bhojas. If the Bhojas are to be identified as the ancestors of the Mahābhojas of the later period, and the Rāṣṭrikas with the Mahāraṭhis of the Śātavāhana period,¹ they must have occupied respectively the territory covered by the modern Berar and the Mahārāṣṭra. The Pulindas are one among the south Indian tribes according to the *Vāyu*² and *Matsya Purāṇas*.³ Apparently their capital city was somewhere near the modern Bhilsa.⁴ Among the vassal states of the north-west figure those of the Yonas, Kambojas, and the Gāndhāras. The precise habitat of the Yonas is uncertain and deserves further investigation. The term *yona* occurs in two different places in the XIII Rock Edict. *Yona* is Prakrit for Sanskrit *yavana*.⁵ The first is a reference to the feudatory Yona state and the other to the Hellenic kingdoms⁶ with whom Aśoka had international relations. The feudatory Yona state may probably refer to the hilly tracts on the lower spurs of the three-peaked Koh-i-Mor where Alexander found "descendants of the western people who had come into those parts with their god Dionysus"⁷ and who helped Alexander in his battle in the plains of the Punjab.

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¹ *Asoka*, 3rd ed., pp. 169-170.

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² Ch. 99, 268.

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³ Ch. 114, 48.

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⁴ See p. 161 of N.L. Dey's *Geographical Dictionary*, Cal. Or. Series, No. 21.

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⁵ See Woolner, *Asoka, Text and Glossary*, Part I, p. 28 and Part II p. 126.

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⁶ The Hellenic states mentioned in the Aśokan inscriptions are Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirius, and Syria. See also *C.H.I.*, I, p. 540.

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⁷ *Ibid.*, p. 354.

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But if Geiger's identification of Alasanda in the Mahāvaṃśa with Alexandria founded by Alexander near Kabul is correct, then it is probable that the Yona country must have been the western portion of modern Afghanistan.¹ The identification of Kamboja state is not difficult. It included a great portion of modern Afghanistan, at least its northern and eastern parts. The Mahābhārata² mentions Rājapura, the capital of that state. Hiuen Tsiang refers to this city and its inhabitants³ and identifies them among the north-western tribes.⁴ The Gāndhāras who are different from the Kambojas must have occupied the territory comprising the districts of Peshawar and Rawalpindi and possibly west of the Indus.⁵

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¹ Geiger, Mahāvaṃśa, p. 194.

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² VII.4.119; See Sörensen's Index, p. 581.

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³ Watters, Vol. I, p. 284.

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⁴ See also Dey, Geographical Dictionary, p. 87.

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⁵ Ibid., pp. 60-61.

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