History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c18.38
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c18.38
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*Āryāvarta*—One important question that is very much canvassed in works on dharmaśāstra is about the country or territory which should be called *āryāvarta* or which was a fit habitation for those who called themselves the followers of the Vedic religion. Therefore a few words on this subject would be quite relevant. The Ṛgveda shows that the centre of Āryan culture in the times of the Ṛgveda was the land of the seven rivers, viz. North-west India and Punjab. We find that the rivers from Kubhā (the Kabul river, in Ṛg. V. 53. 9; x. 76. 6), Krumu (the modern Kurram, Ṛg. V. 53. 9, X. 75. 6), Suvāstu (modern Swat, in Ṛg. VIII. 19. 37), the seven Sindhus (Ṛg. II. 12. 12, IV. 28. 1, VIII. 24. 27, X. 43. 3) up to the Yamunā (Ṛg. V. 52. 17, X. 75. 5), the Ganges (Ṛg. VI. 45. 31, X. 75. 5) and Sarayu (probably in modern Oudh, in Ṛg. IV. 30. 18 and V. 53. 9) figure in the Ṛgveda. Among the rivers of the Punjab the following are individually mentioned:—Sindhu (Ṛg. II. 15. 6 ‘he made the Sindhu flow northwards’, Ṛg. V. 53. 9, Ṛg. IV. 30. 12, Ṛg. VIII. 20. 25 where reference is made to the medicine in the Sindhu, in the Asiknī, in the seas and on mountains), Asiknī (Ṛg. VIII. 20. 25, X. 75. 5), Paruṣṇī (Ṛg. IV. 22. 2, V. 52. 9), Vipāś and Śutudrī (Ṛg. III. 33. 1 where their confluence is spoken of), Vipāś alone in Ṛg. IV. 30. 12, Śutudrī alone in Ṛg. X. 75. 5, Dṛṣadvatī, Āpayā and Sarasvatī (as very holy in Ṛg. III. 23. 4), Sarasvatī alone (Ṛg. VII.
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95, the whole hymn is addressed to it of which verse 2 says it springs from the mountains; Ṛg. VI. 61 is another hymn addressed to it, v. 10 of which says it has seven sisters), Gomatī (Ṛg. VIII. 24. 30, X. 75. 6), Vitastā (Ṛg. X. 75. 5). Gradually the Āryans spread southwards and eastwards. The Kāṭhaka S. X. 6 speaks of Kuru-Pañcālas. In the Brāhmaṇas the centre of Āryan activities and culture shifted to the countries of the Kurus and Pañcālas and Kosala-Videhas. For example, the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa remarks that in the lands of Kurupañcālas speech is at its best.³¹ In Śat. Br. XI. 4. 1. 1 Uddālaka Āruṇi is called a Kuru-Pañcāla brāhmaṇa and contrasted with brāhmaṇas of the north (S. B. E. vol. 44 p. 51). Similarly the Kauṣītaki-br. (VII. 6) remarks³² that those who want to learn (best) speech go northwards or wait upon him who comes from that direction. In the Śatapatha we have the story of Videgha Māṭhava who went beyond the country of Kosala-Videha, crossed the river Sadānīrā that came down from the Himālaya, and settled to the east of that river, where the country was a cultivated and civilized one in the times of that work, while in former ages it had been uncultivated (I. 4. 1. 4-17, S. B. E. vol. 12 pp. 105-106.). Even in the Buddhist Jātakas we see that being an ‘udicca brāhmaṇo’ was a source of great pride (vide Fick’s work p. 40). The Tai. Br.
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speaks of the *vedi* of the gods as being in Kuru-kṣetra.³³ Even in the Ṛgveda itself the country through which the rivers Dṛṣadvatī, Āpayā and Sarasvatī flowed is spoken of as the best spot (vide III. 23. 4). The Tai. Br. says that the Kurupañcālas go east in the winter and westwards in the last month of summer. In the times of the Upaniṣads also the Kurupañcāla country appears to have occupied a pre-eminent place. The Bṛ. Up. (III. 1. 1.) says that when Janaka, king of Videha, performed a sacrifice the brāhmaṇas of Kurupañcāla flocked there in large numbers. Vide also Bṛ. Up. III. 9. 19. The Bṛ. Up. VI. 2. 1 and Chāndogya V. 3. 1 say that Śvetaketu went to the assembly of the Pañcālas. Kauṣītaki Br. Up. (IV. 1.) names the countries of Uśīnara, Matsya, Kurupañcāla and Kāśīvideha as centres of intellectual activity and in II. 13 refers to two mountains one in the North and the other in the South (meaning probably Himavat and Vindhya). According to the Nirukta (II. 2), the country of Kamboja was outside the limits of the country of Āryas, though the language spoken there seems to have been the same. The Mahābhāṣya lends support to this and adds that Surāṣṭra was not an Ārya country (vol. 1, p. 9). In the times of the Dharmasūtras great divergence of opinion prevailed on the question of the location of Āryāvarta. The Vasiṣṭha-dharma³⁴-sūtra says;
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‘Āryāvarta is to the east of the disappearance (of Sarasvatī in the desert), to the west of Kālakavana, to the north of the mountains Pāriyātra and Vindhya and to the south of the Himālaya’. It then refers to two more views held by other authors viz., ‘Āryāvarta is in the region between the Ganges and the Jumna’ and ‘where the black antelope roams about there is spiritual pre-eminence’. The Baud. D. S. (I. 1.27) gives the same limits of Āryāvarta as Vasiṣṭha, substituting the word 'vinaśana' for 'ādarśa'.³⁵ Patañjali in his Mahābhāṣya defines Āryāvarta several times in the same terms as Vasiṣṭha does.³⁶ The Dharmasūtra of Śaṅkha-Likhita gives somewhat similar limits by remarking 'spotless spiritual pre-eminence is to be found (in the country) to the east of the countries of Sindhu and Sauvīra, to the west of the city of Kāmpilī, to the south of Himālaya and to the north of Pāriyātra'.³⁷ The extant Manusmṛti (II. 22) makes Āryāvarta coterminos with the whole of India north of the Vindhya by saying that the territory between the Himālaya and the Vindhya and extending up to the eastern and western oceans is known by the wise as Āryāvarta. The second view (viz. Āryāvarta is the region between the Ganges and the Jumna) occurs in Baud. Dh. S. (I. 1.28). In the Tai. Ār. II. 20 special honour is shown to those who dwell between the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā. The third view (viz. Āryāvarta is the country where the black antelope roams about naturally) is the one given in most smṛtis.
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Both Vasiṣṭha (I. 14-15) and Baud. Dh. S. (I. 1. 29-30) quote an ancient *gāthā* from the Nidāna work of the Bhāllavins³⁸ to the effect that wherever the black antelope roams about in the country lying between the Sindhu in the west and the rising mountain in the east, there is spiritual pre-eminence. So this view is a very ancient one and probably arose from some mythological account as is indicated by the commentary of Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I.2 which quotes a prose passage of the Śvetāśvataras 'Sacrifice became a black antelope and wandered over the earth; *dharma* followed it in its wanderings'. This view of the limits of Āryāvarta is maintained by Śaṅkha (as quoted by Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 2), Viṣṇudharmasūtra 84.4, Manu II. 23, Yāj. I. 2, Saṁvarta 4, Laghu-Hārīta (I. p. 178), Veda-Vyāsa (I. 3), Bṛhat-Parāśara (p. 56) and several other smṛtis. The Manusmṛti (II.
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17-24) defines Brahmāvarta as the country between the holy rivers Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvatī,³⁹ says that the traditional mode of conduct observed in that country is called *sadācāra*, that the countries of Kurukṣetra, Matsya, Pañcāla and Śūrasena are styled Brahmarṣideśa and are slightly less (in holiness) than Brahmāvarta, that Madhyadeśa is between the Himālaya and the Vindhya and to the east of Vinaśana and to the west of Prayāga, that Āryāvarta is the country between the Himālaya and Vindhya up to the eastern and western oceans, that that territory where the black antelope roams about naturally is the country fit for sacrifices and the countries beyond constitute *mlecchadeśa*, that men of the three higher varṇas should endeavour to live in these countries (viz. Brahmāvarta, Brahmarṣideśa, Madhyadeśa, Āryāvarta &c.) while a śūdra, when distressed for his livelihood, may stay in any country whatever. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (84. 4) says that the country where the system of the four varṇas is not established is to be known as Mleccha country and Āryāvarta is beyond that. This is explained by Aparārka (p. 5) as follows: one who desires to practise Vedic religion should live in one of the four countries viz. Brahmāvarta and others; if that is not possible, then in a country where there is establishment of the four varṇas and the black antelope roams about naturally;
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if both these cannot be had, then one should dwell in a country where at least one of the two (*cāturvarṇya* and black antelope) is found. The above discussion shows that in very ancient times the country south of the Vindhya was looked upon as beyond the pale of Aryan culture. Baud. Dh. S. (I. 1. 31) says that the countries of Avanti, Aṅga, Magadha, Surāṣṭra, Dakṣiṇāpatha, Upāvṛt, Sindhu and Sauvīra are of mixed origin (i. e. not of pure Āryan ancestry), that a person who goes to Āraṭṭaka, Kāraskara, Puṇḍra, Sauvīra, Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga and Prānūna (?) has to offer a solemn sacrifice like the Sarvapṛṣṭha and that for going to Kaliṅga the prāyaścitta is an offering to Vaiśvānara Agni. The Mit. on Yāj. III. 292 quotes a verse of Devala to the effect that if a man goes to Sindhu, Sauvīra, Saurāṣṭra, the border lands (or Mleccha countries), Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga and Andhra he has to perform the Upanayana saṁskāra over again.⁴⁰ The Mit. adds a remark that this is so only if the man goes to these countries for some purpose other than pilgrimage. Gradually however as Āryan culture spread over the whole of what is now called India the view of the sages about the countries pre-eminently Āryan had to be given up. Medhātithi on Manu II. 22 explains that Āryāvarta is so called 'because Āryas again and again spring up there and because the Mlecchas even if they overrun it from time to time do not abide there for long' and then makes the following very sensible observation (on II.
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23) 'if a kṣatriya king of excellent conduct were to conquer the Mlecchas, establish the system of four varṇas (in the Mleccha country) and assign to Mlecchas a position similar to that of cāṇḍālas in Āryāvarta, even that (Mleccha) country would be fit for the performance of sacrifices, since the earth is not by itself impure, but becomes impure through contact (of impure persons or things)'.⁴¹ As a result of the spread of Āryan culture eastwards and southwards and the frequent invasions of non-Āryan tribes on the north-west, the countries on the rivers of the Punjab came to be looked upon in the whirligig of time as unworthy of the Āryas to live in. Karṇaparva 43. 5-8 abuses those who live on the Sindhu and the five rivers of the Punjab as impure and *dharmabāhya*.⁴²