Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c3.s2.15

c3.s2.15

The next stage in Indo-Āryan history begins, as we saw above, with the appearance of the Kurus and the Pañcālas who were, in the Brāhmaṇa Period, settled in the Middle country—the madhyamā dik of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa.² Even though the two peoples are often seen to be referred to in the Brāhmaṇas as a united nation,³ it does not necessarily follow that both lived under one kingship. As a matter of fact, the relations between the two were sometimes friendly,⁴ and then tied with matrimonial alliances,⁵ but at other times, hostile. This conflict drags on till the great Bhārata war,⁶ and later. It is precisely here that we should usher in the Jātaka evidence for this period which forms the subject of this chapter.