Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c10.s2.5

c10.s2.5

The difference between the ancient Vedic land of culture in the west and the east, where there was Aryan land but not yet a long established home of Vaiśvānara, can scarcely be more significantly expressed.⁴ Certainly the boundary between the two tracts here appears to have been already pushed forward a stage farther towards the east. The Kosalas had entered into the community of Vedo-Brāhmaṇic culture earlier than the Videhas.⁵ Quite in accordance with this is the fact that among the names of the stocks not held in full esteem, as though being non-Aryans and at the same time applied as the designation of mixed castes, Vaideha occurs as well as Māgadha.⁶ In Weber's opinion, the Aryan immigrants themselves were not wholly Brāhmaṇized, i.e., not wholly permeated by the culture of the Kuru-Pāñcālas.⁷ The *Kauśītaka Āraṇyaka* states that the residence of the Brāhmaṇas in the Magadhan territory was considered something unusual and that such Brāhmaṇas were not respectable.¹