Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s5.6

c11.s5.6

**Vaśa-Uśīnara, Kāśi.** Most of the geographical data, together with really historical statements, are to be found in the last books of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* from which it at any rate specially follows that their scene is the country of the Kuru-Pañchālas and Vaśa-Uśīnaras. The ethnological table given in viii, 14 is sufficiently clear on this point. In the middle [“*asyāṁ dhruvāyāṁ madhyamāyāṁ pratishṭhāyāṁ diśi*” in which the use of the word *asyāṁ* as distinguished from *etasyāṁ* used in respect of other territories shows that the compiler of the text belongs to this very territory] lie the realms of the Kuru-Pañchālas together with Vaśas and Uśīnaras. To the south of this Land of the Middle there dwell the Satvats, eastward the Prāchyas (i.e. the Kāśī, Kosala, Videha, and Magadha peoples), westward the Nīchyas, Apāchyas. In the north the Middle Land is bounded by the Himālaya, beyond which (*pareṇa Himavantam*) dwell the Uttara Kurus and Uttara Madras. This sketch of the distribution of Indian peoples points to the land which formed the centre of genuine Vedo-Brahmanic culture from which it radiated in all directions. This land was later known (cf. Manu) as the land of the Brahmarshis whose customs and rites are taken as a model, whose warriors are the bravest, the land of Kurukshetra and of the Matsyas, Pañchālas, and Śūrasenas [ii, 19; vii, 193] corresponding to what is set down in the *Aitareya* as *madhyamā diś* and as south; but what is regarded in the *Aitareya* as west and east, above all, the land of the eastern peoples of Kāśī, Kosala, Videha, and Magadha, is by Manu excluded from the land of the Brahmarshis