Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c16.60

c16.60

§ 75. The O s s a d i o i were also an 'independent nation' according to Arrian.⁵ No other writer mentions them. Their proposed identification with the Yaudheyas (by Cunningham)⁶ is untenable on philological grounds. They seem to be, as suggested by V de Saint-Martin (McCrindle, *Alexander*, p. 156, *n*), identical with the Vasātis of the Mahā-Bhārata (Sabha, LII. 15) who appear there as neighbours of the Kshudrakas and the Mālavas and in a group commencing with the Ambashṭhas. Kātyāyana and Patañjali mention the 'country of the Vasātis' along with that of the Śibis (on P. IV. 2. 52). The Gaṇapāṭha (on P. IV. 2. 53) places them in the group commencing with the republican *Rājanyas* (§ 160).