Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s2.11

c10.s2.11

The entire Brāhmaṇic literature emphasizes and attributes sacredness to the Kuru-Pāñcāla region. Although Janaka and his Purohita Yājñavalkya provided intellectual and spiritual leadership for all the paṇḍits of northern India at the time, the *Brāhmaṇas* are intent on stressing the debt of Yājñavalkya to his *guru* Ilaka Āruṇi of Kuru-Pāñcāla. In this connection Oldenberg makes a valid comparison of the Indian situation with that of the Greeks. He states that considering the wide spread of the Aryan territory and Aryan peoples in India, it is probable that even in the Vedic age a community of culture no longer prevailed throughout this vast tract. Analogies with kindred nations (Aetolians and Ionians; Umbrians, Latins and Oscanns) show this development of separate cultures. Similarly there is a difference between the western stocks of India with their Vedic culture and the eastern peoples who developed themselves more slowly; between the Kuru-Pāñcālas on the one side and the peoples of Kosala, Videha and Magadha on the other. This distinction must be recognized, according to Oldenberg, although the contrast is not so sharp as between the different Greek stocks.²