Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c26.74

c26.74

§ 164. The Audumbaras are not known to the early Pāṇinian literature; but they are mentioned in the Gaṇapāṭha in the Rājanya group of republics.² They are placed at the head of the Punjab republics in the earlier list of the Sabhā-Parvan of the Mahā-Bhārata (Chapter LII). Probably they also were republican. Their coins of the first century B.C. are found in Northern Punjab and they bear legend in Kharoshṭhī as well as in Brāhmī. Varāha-Mihira places them in the company of the Kapisthalas who are a twin associate of the Kaṭhas in Patañjali. They were somewhere between Kangra and Ambala. A branch of theirs seems to have migrated to Cutch, as Pliny locates the *Odomboeres* there. Their coinage resembles that of the Ārjunāyanas in style. Their coins show that the Audumbaras (if a republic) had an elective king. They are struck in the name of the community and king, styled 'His Exalted Majesty' (*e.g.* *Mahadevasa raña Dharagho-shasa* | *Odumbarisa*). The coins bear the 'lakshaṇa' of a tree, the representation of a building with tall columns and a slanting roof which may be their mote-hall or some other public building, and the figure of their standard which Cunningham mistook to be a Dharmachakra. Across the field *Viśvamitra* is written and a picture of the Ṛishi given. Probably Viśvāmitra was their national sage.¹