Topographical Lists from the Mahābhārata

In attempting to verify the places or people specified in the text, various difficulties are to be encountered, which must serve to apologize for but partial success. Some are inherent in the subject, such as the changes which have taken place in the topography of India since the lists were compiled, and the imperfectness of the specification itself: states and tribes and cities have disappeared, even from recollection, and some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers, have undergone a total alteration. Bucanan (Description of Eastern Hindustan), following Rennell over the same ground at an interval of some thirty or forty years, remarks that many of the streams laid down in the Bengal Atlas (the only series of maps of India yet published, that can be regarded as of authority) are no longer to be traced. Then the lists which are given are such mere catalogues, that they afford no clue to verification beyond names; and names have been either changed or so corrupted, as to be no longer recognizable. On the other hand, much of the difficulty arises from our own want of knowledge. Scattered through the Purāṇas and other works, the names given in the topographical lists recur with circumstances which fix their locality; but these means of verification have not yet been sufficiently investigated. There are also geographical treatises in Sanscrit, which there is reason to believe afford much accurate and interesting information: they are not common. Col. Wilford speaks of having received a number from Jaypur, but upon his death they disappeared. After a considerable interval some of his MSS. were purchased for the Calcutta Sanscrit College, but by far the larger portion of his collection had been dispersed. A few leaves only on geographical subjects were found, from which I translated and published a chapter on the geography of some of the districts of Bengal: (Calcutta Quarterly Magazine, Dec. 1824:) the details were accurate and valuable, though the compilation was modern. Notwithstanding these impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least mountains and rivers to a much greater extent than is now practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been Oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language of the country: they have consequently put down names at p. 180 random, according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover Sanscrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta, Barnagore represents Varāhanagar, Dakṣineswar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore,and Ulubarīa is Anglicised into Willoughbruy. Going a little farther off, we have Dalkisore for Darikesvarī, Midnapore for Medinipur, and a most unnecessary accumulation of consonants in Caughmahry for Kākamārī. There is scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is in some degree, perhaps, a national defect.

The printed edition reads Śaktimat, which is also found in some MSS., but the more usual reading is that of the text. I may here add that a Śuktimat mountain occurs in Bhīma's invasion of the eastern region. Mahābh. Sabhā P. Gandhamādana here takes the place of Rikṣa.

For additional mountains in the Vāyu, see Asiatic Researches, VIII. 334 The Bhāgavata, Padma, and Mārkaṇḍeya add the following: Maināka, which it appears from the Rāmāyaṇa is at the source of the Sone, that river being termed Mainākaprabhava. ‘Kiṣkindhya Kāṇḍa;’ Trikūṭa, called also in Hemachanchra's vocabulary Suvela; Riṣabha, Kūṭaka, Konwa, Devagiri (Deogur or Ellora, the mountain of the gods; the Apocopi are said by Ptolemy to be also called mountains of the gods); Ṛṣyamuka, in the Dekhin, where the Pampā rises; Śrī-śaila or Śrī-parvata, near the Kṛṣṇa (As. Res. V. 303); Venkata, the hill of Tripatī, Vāridhāra, Mangala-prastha, Droṇa, Citrakūṭa (Citrakote in Bundelkhand), Govarddhana (near Mathurā), Raivata, the range that branches off from the western portion of the Vindhya towards the north, extending nearly to the Jumna; according to Hemacandra it is the Giriṇara range; it is the Aravali of Tod; Kakubha, Nīla (the blue mountains of Orissa), Gohamukha, Indrakīla, Ramagiri (Ram-tek, near Nag-pur), Valakrama, Sudhāma, Tuṅgaprastha, Nāga (the hills east of Ramghur), Bodhana, Pandara, Durjayanta, Arbuda (Abu in Guzerat), Gomanta (in the western Ghats), Kūṭaśaila, Kritasmara, and Chakora. Many single mountains are named in different works.

See note 4, p. 175.

The Sarsuti, or Caggar or Gaggar, N. W. of Tahnesar. See below, note 6.

The Bāhudā is elsewhere said to rise in the Himalaya. Wilford considers it to be the Mahānada, which falls into the Ganges below Malda. The Mahābhārata has amongst the Tīrthas, or places of pilgrimage, two rivers of this name, one apparently near the Sarasvatī, one more to the east. Hemacandra gives as synonymes Ārjunī and Saitavāhinī, both implying the ‘white river:’ a main feeder of the Mahānada is called Dhavalī or Daub, which has the same meaning.

The Dṛṣadvatī is a river of considerable importance in the history of the Hindus, although no traces of its ancient name exist. According to Manu it is one boundary of the district called Brahmāvartta, in which the institution of castes, and their several duties, had for ever existed: implying that in other places they were of more recent origin. This holy land, ‘made by the gods,’ was of very limited extent. Its other boundary was the Sarasvatī. That the Dṛṣadvatī was not far off we learn from Manu, as Kurukṣetra, Matsya, Pañcāla, and Śūrasena, or the upper part of the Doab, and country to the east, were not included in Brahmāvartta; they constituted Brahmarṣi-deśa, contiguous to it: Kullūka Bhaṭṭa explains Anantara, ‘something less or inferior;’ but it more probably means ‘not divided from,’ ‘immediately contiguous.’ We must look for the Dṛṣadvatī, therefore, west of the Jumna. In the Tīrtha Yātrā of the Mahābhārata we find it forming one of the boundaries of Kurukṣetra. It is there said, ‘Those who dwell on the south of the Sarasvatī, and north of the Dṛṣadvatī, or in Kurukṣetra, dwell in heaven.’ In the same place, the confluence of the Dṛṣadvatī with a stream of Kurukṣetra, called the Kauśikī, is said to be of peculiar sanctity. Kurukṣetra is the country about Tahnesur or Sthāneśvara, where a spot called Kurukhet still exists, and is visited in pilgrimage. The Kirin-kṣetra of Manu may be intended for the country of the Kurus, in the more immediate vicinity of Delhi. According to Wilford, the Dṛṣadvatī is the Caggar; in which case our maps have taken the liberty of transposing the names of the rivers, as the Caggar now is the northern stream, and the Sursooty the southern, both rising in the Himālaya, and uniting to form one river, called Gagar or Caggar in the maps, but more correctly Sarsuti or Sarasvatī; which then runs south-west, and is lost in the desert. There have no doubt been considerable changes here, both in the nomenclature and in the courses of the rivers.

The Beyah, Hyphasis, or Bibasis.

The Rāvī or Hydraotes or Adris.

The Jhelum, but still called in Kashmir the Vitastā, the Bidaspes or Hydaspes.

This river, according to the Viṣṇu P., rises from the Rikṣa mountains, but the Vāyu and Kūrma bring it from the Vindhya or Sathpura range. There are several indications of its position in the Mahābhārata, but none very precise. Its p. 182 source appears to be near that of the Kṛṣṇa: it flows near the beginning of the Daṇḍaka forest, which should place it rather near to the sources of the Godāvarī: it passes through Vidarbha or Berar, and, Yudhiṣṭhira having bathed in it, comes to the Vaidūrya mountain and the Narmadā river. These circumstances make it likely that the Payīn Gaṅgā is the river in question.

The Devā, or Goggra.

Both these are from the Pāripātra range. In some MSS. the latter is read Vedasinī and Vetasinī. In the Rāmāyaṇa occur Vedā and Vedavainasikā, which may be the same, as they seem to be in the direction of the Sone. One of them may be the Beos of eastern Malwa, but it rises in the Rikṣa mountain.

From Pāripātra, Kūrma; from Mahendra, Vāyu.

One copy has Ikṣumālinī; two others, Ikṣulā and Krimi: one MS. of the Vāyu has an Ikṣulā from Mahendra: the Matsya has Ikṣudā; Wilford's list has Drākṣalā.

Of these rivers, the two first are named in the Padma P., but not in the Vāyu, &c. The Gomati in Oude, the Gandak, and the Kosi are well known. The Dhutapāpā is said to rise in the Himālaya.

In different MSS. read Micitā and Nisritā. In the Vāyu and Matsya, Niścirā or Nirvirā is said to flow from the Himālaya.

Also Lohatāraṇī and Lohacāriṇī.

The Sarayū or Sarju is commonly identified with the Deva. Wilford says it is so by the Paurāṇics, but we have here proof to the contrary. They are also distinguished by the people of the country. Although identical through great part of their course, they rise as different streams, and again divide and enter the Ganges by distinct branches.

The recurrence of the same name in this, as in several similar subsequent instances, is possibly an error of the copyist; but it is also sometimes likely that one name is applied to different rivers. In one MS. we have, in place of this word, Caitravatī; and in another Vetravatī.

Read also Śatāvarī. According to Wilford, the Śarāvatī is the Ban-gaṅgā.

The Vāyu has Pārā, which is a river in Malwa, the Pārvatī. MSS. read Vāṇī and Veṇā.

According to the Vāyu, this rises in the Sahya m., and flows towards the south: it is therefore the Beema of Aurungabad.

The Kaverī is well known, and has always borne the same appellation, being the Chaberis of Ptolemy.

Read Culukā.

Read also Tāpī; the Taptī river of the Dekhin.

Read Ahitā and Sahitā.

Rises in the Sahya mountain, and flows southwards: Vāyu, &c.

Read Vicitrā.

Several rivers are called by this name, as well as the Indus: there is one of some note, the Kāli Sindh in Malwa.

Also Vājinī.

This agrees best in name with the Beema: it is also mentioned as a tīrtha in the Mahābhārata.

From Śuktimat: Kūrma and Vāyu. There is a Balāsan from the eastern portion of the Himālaya, a feeder of the Mahānada, which may be the Palāsinī, if the mountain be in this direction.

Also Pippalalāvatī. The Vāyu has a Pippalā from the Rikṣa mountain.

Also Kuśavīrā.

Also Mahikā and Maruṇḍācī.

Also Śenā.

Read Kritavatī and Ghritavatī.

Also Dhuśulyā.

Also Atikṛṣṇa.

In place of both Suvārthācī.

From Pāripātra: Vāyu and Matsya.

Also Kuśanāra.

Also Śaśikānta.

Also Vastrā and Suvastrā.

One of the tīrthas in the Mahābhārata.

According to the Mahābhārata, this rises in the Vaidūrya mountain, part of the southern Vindhya or Sathpura range.

Also Kuvīra.

Three MSS. agree in reading this Ambuvāhinī.

Also Vainadī.

Also Kuveṇā: it is possibly meant for the Tuṅgabhādra or Toombudra.

A river in Malwa, so called from the city of the same name, which I have elsewhere conjectured to be Bhilsa. Megha Dūta, 31. There is a ‘Bess’ river in the maps, which joins the Betwa at Bhilsa, and is probably the river of the text.

The Varna or Suvamā, ‘the beautiful river,’ Wilford identifies with the Ramgaṅgā.

Also Mahapagā, ‘the great river.’

Also Kucchilā.

The Sona river, rising in Maināka or Amarakantak, and flowing east to the Ganges.

This and the preceding both rise from the Vindhya mountain: the latter is also read Antassilā, ‘the river flowing within or amidst rocks.’

Also Parokṣā.

We have a Suranā in the Vāyu, and Surasā in the Kūrma and Matsya, flowing from the Rikṣa mountain.

The Tamasā or Tonse, from Rikṣa.

This and the preceding scarcely merit a place amongst the rivers, being two small streams which fall into the Ganges east and west of Benares, which is thence denominated Varanāsī.

Parṇāśā or Varṇāśā, from the Pāripātra mountain.

Also Mānavī.

The Kṛṣṇā of the Dakhin is probably here intended, although its more ordinary designation seems to be that already specified, Kṛṣṇaveṇa or Kṛṣṇaveṇī. The meaning is much the same; the one being the ‘dark river,’ the other simply the ‘dark,’ the Niger.

A river from Śuktimat: Vāyu.

A river in Cuttack, according to Wilford: it is one of the tīrthas of the Mahābhārata, and apparently in a different direction. Bucanan (Eastern Hindustan) has a river of this name in Dinajpur.

Both from the Vindhya: Vāyu and Kūrma. There is a Goaris in Ptolemy in central India.

From Rikṣa: Vāyu.

Also Muñja and Makaravāhinī.

From Rikṣa: Vāyu. According to the Mahābhārata, it rises in the mountain Citrakote.

The Baitaraṇī in Cuttack. It is named in the Mahābhārata as a river of Kaliṅga.

Also read Nīpa and Koka.

From Rikṣa, but read also Śuktimati, which is the reading of the Matsya. Wilford considers it to be the Swarnarekka of Cuttack.

Also Anāgā and Suraṅgā; perhaps the preferable reading should be Sumaṅgā, a river .flowing from Maināka, according to the Mahābhārata.

Part of the Brahmaputra.

A considerable river in the east, flowing between Dinajpur and Rangpur.

Also Vṛṣasāhwa.

This and the preceding flow from Śuktimat, according to the Vāyu, Matsya, and Kūrma. The last occurs also Riṣīka.

Also Suparṇā. The Punyā is considered to be the Pun-pun of Behan, but there is also a Parnā river in the same province.

It is possible that further research will identify more than those attempted to be verified in the foregoing notes, as well as meet with others readily recognizable. In the authorities consulted several occur not comprehended in the text, as the Kuhu and Ikṣu, from the Himālaya; Vritraghnī, Candanā (Chandan of Bhagalpur), Mahī (the Mahy of western Malwa), Śiprā, and Avantī (rivers near Ujayin), from Pāripātra; Mahānada in Orissa, Drumā, Dasārṇa (Dhosaun in Bundelkhand), Citrakūṭā, Śronī or Śyenā, Piśācikā, Bañjulā, Bāluvāhinī, and Matkuṇā, all from Rikṣa; Nirvindhyā, Madrā, Niṣadhā, Śinibāhu, Kumudvatī, and Toyā, from Vindhya; Bañjula, from Sahya; Kritamālā, Tāmraparṇī, Puṣpajāti, and Utpalavatī, from Malaya; Lāṅgulinī and Vansadhārā, from Mahendra; and Mandagā and Kripā or Rūpā, from Śuktimat. In the Rāmāyaṇa we have, besides some already specified, the Rucirā, Pampā, eastern Sarasvatī, Vegavatī or Vyki of Madurā, and Varadā or Wurda of Berar; and we have many others in the Mahābhārata and different works, from which the Sanscrit appellations of most of the Indian rivers might be, with some little time and trouble, collected.

The people of the upper part of the Doab. The two words might also be understood as denoting the Pāñcālas of the Kuru country, there being two divisions of the tribe: see below, note 20.

The Śūrasenas were the inhabitants of Mathura, the Suraseni of Arrian.

The people of the upper part of the Coromandel coast, well known in the traditions of the eastern Archipelago as Kling. Ptolemy has a city in that part called Caliga; and Pliny, Calingæ proximi mari.

One of the tribes of central India, according to the Vāyu: it is also read Bāhyas.

The Malas and Mālavarttis are placed, in the Vāyu and Matsya, amongst the central nations. The Mārkaṇḍeya reads Gavavarttis. Wilford considers Māla to be the Mal-bhūm of Medinipur. As noticed in the Megha Dūta, I have supposed it to be situated in Chattisgarh. p. 21, note.

The people of Dinajpur, Rangpur, and Cooch Behar. Calcutta Mag. Dec. 1824.

Read Kuśaṇḍas, Kuśalyas, Kuśādhyas, Kisādhajas, and placed in central India.

Also Sauśalyas and Sauśulyas.

Kuntala is in one place one of the central countries; in another, one of the southern: the name is applied in inscriptions p. 186 to the province in which Curgode is situated, part of the Adoni district: (As. Res. IX. 427:) and consistently with this position it is placed amongst the dependant or allied states of Vidarbha in the Dada Kumāra. Calcutta Quarterly Mag. Sept. 1827.

A central nation: Vāyu. The Rāmāyana places them in the east. The combination indicates the country between Benares and Oude.

Chedi is usually considered as Chandail, on the west of the Jungle Mehals, towards Nagpur. It is known, in times subsequent to the Purāṇas, as Raṇastambha.

Some copies read Vatsa, and the other Purāṇas have such a name amongst the central countries; the people perhaps of Vatsa, Rāja of Kausāmbhī, near the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges. There are, however, two Matsyas, one of which, according to the Yantra Samrāṭ, is identifiable with Jaypur. In the Dig-vijaya of Nakula he subdues the Matsyas farther to the west, or in Guzerat.

Situated on the back of the Vindhya range: Vāyu and Matsya. They are generally named with the people of Mālava, which confirms this locality. They are said to be the posterity of Karuṣa, one of the sons of Vaivaswata Manu.

These are also placed along the Vindhya chain, but at different times appear to have occupied different positions. They were a kindred tribe with the Andhakas and Vṛṣṇis, and a branch of the Yādavas. A Bhoja Rājā is amongst the warriors of the Mahābhārata. At a later period, Bhoja, the Rājā of Dhār, preserves an indication of this people; and from him the Bhojpuris, a tribe still living in western Behar, profess to be descended: they are not improbably relics of the older tribe. Bhoja is also used sometimes as a synonyme of Bhojakaṭa, a city near the Narmadā, founded by Rukmi, brother-in-law of Kṛṣṇa, and before that, prince of Kundiṇa or Condavir.

Pulinda is applied to any wild or barbarous tribe; those here named are some of the people of the deserts along the Indus; but Pulindas are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains and forests across central India, the haunts of the Bhils and Gonds. So Ptolemy places the Pulindai along the banks of the Narmadā to the frontiers of Larice; the Lāṭa or Lar of the Hindus; Kandesh and part. of Guzerat.

In the other three Purāṇas we have Uttāmārṇas, on the Vindhya range.

The people of the ‘ten forts,’ subsequently multiplied to ‘thirty-six,’ such being the import of Chattisgerh, which seems to be in the site of Dasārṇa. Megha Dūta, p. 30, note.

A Vindhya tribe, according to the other Purāṇas. The locality is confirmed by mythological personations; for Mekala is said to be a Ṛṣi, the father of the river Narmadā; thence called Mekalā and Mekalakanyā: the mountain where it rises is also called Mekalādri. The Rāmāyaṇa places the Mekalas amongst the southern tribes.

Utkala is still the native name of Orissa.

These may be the southern Paṇcālas. p. 187 When Droṇa overcame Drupada, king of Pañcāla, as related in the Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, he retained half the country, that north of the Ganges, and restored to its former chief the other half, south of that river as far as to the Chambal. The capital of the latter became Mākandi on the Ganges; and the country included also Kāmpilya, the Kampil of the Mohammedans, but placed by them in the Doab. The capital of the northern portion was Ahikṣetra, a name traceable in the Adisathrus of Ptolemy, though the position differs: but Ahikṣetra or Ahiccatra, as it is also written, seems to have been applied to more than one city.

Perhaps the people of Tirhut, along the Kosi.

'Having more than one back;' probable some nickname or term of derision. Thus we have, in the Rāmāyaṇa and other works, enumerated amongst tribes, the Karṇa-prāvaraṇas, ‘those who wrap themselves up in their ears;’ Aṣṭa-karṇakas, ‘the eight-eared;’ or Oṣṭha-karṇakas, ‘having lips extending to their ears;’ Kākamukhas, ‘crow-faced;’ Ekapādukas, ‘one-footed,’ or rather ‘one-slippered:’ exaggerations of national ugliness, or allusions to peculiar customs, which were not literally intended, although they may have furnished the Mandevilles of ancient and modern times with some of their monsters. The spirit of the nomenclature is shewn by these tribes being associated with Kirātas, ‘barbarians,’ and Yavanas, either Greeks or Mohammedans.

A preferable reading seems to be Yugandhara: a city in the Puñjab so called is mentioned in the Mahābhārata, Karṇa P.

Read Bodhas, Godhas, and Saudhas. There is a Rajput tribe called Sodha.

This may consist of two names, and is so read in MSS., or the latter term occurs Kaliṅgas; both terms are repeated. Besides the Machu of the north, a similar word,. Madru, is applied to Madura in the south. As. Res. IX. 428. The Rāmāyaṇa has Madras in the east, as well as in the north.

The people of the Benares district, and that opposite.

The inhabitants of Ujayin.

These should be opposite to the Kuntis, but where either is situated does not appear.

The best reading is Gomanta, part of the Konkan about Goa.

The more usual reading is Khaṇḍas; one MS. has Parṇas.

A country of considerable extent and power at various periods. The name remains in Beder, which may have been the ancient capital; but the kingdom seems to have corresponded with the great part of Berar and Kandesh. It is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Purāṇas amongst the countries of the south.

Also Rūpavāsikas. There is a Rupā river from the Śuktimat mountain, the vicinity of which may be alluded to. We have Rūpasas or Rūpapas amongst the southern tribes of the Purāṇas.

Read also Aśmalas and Aśmakas: the latter are enumerated amongst the people of the south in the Rāmāyaṇa, and in the Vāyu, Matsya, and Mārkaṇḍeya P. There is a prince of the same name of the solar dynasty.

Gova or Kuva is an ancient name of the southern Konkan, and may be intended in this place by the Gopa country; or it may imply ‘the district of cow-herds,’ that is, of Nomadic tribes.

Also read Kulatis and Pāṇītakas.

Read also Adhirājya and Adhirāṣṭra, which mean the same, ‘the over or superior kingdom.’

Also Kuśādhya, Kuśānda, and Mukuntha.

Also Vallirāṣṭra. There are Mallas in the east, along the foot of the Himalaya, in Bhīma's Dig-vijaya; but we should rather look for them in the north-west, in the site of the Malli of Arrian. We have in the Purāṇas, Mahārāṣṭra, the Mahratta country, which may be here intended.

Two copies read Kevala; one, Kambala, The text is probably wrong, as we have Kerala below.

Also Vārāyāsis and Varavāsis: one copy has, what is likely to be most correct, Vānarāsyas, the monkey-faced people.'

Read Upavāha and Pravāha.

The MSS. agree in reading this Vakra.

The Śakas occur again, more than once, which may be possibly unnecessary repetition: but these people, the Sakai and Sacæ of classical writers, the Indo-Scythians of Ptolemy, extended, about the commencement of our era, along the west of India, from the Hindu Koh to the mouths of the Indus.

The inhabitants of Tirhut.

The people of South Bahar.

Also read Mahyas and Suhmas: the latter is probably correct. The Suhmas and Prasuhmas were found in the east by Bhīma; and Suhma is elsewhere said to be situated east of Bengal, towards the sea, the king and the people being Mlecchas, that is not Hindus: it would correspond therefore with Tiperah and Aracan.

Also read Malajas, but less correctly perhaps. The Malayas are the people of the southern Ghats.

We have Pravijayas in the east, according to the Purāṇas.

Anga is the country about Bhagalpur, of which Campā was the capital.

Eastern Bengal.

We have had these before, but they are repeated perhaps in conformity to the usual classification, which connects them with the two preceding, being derived in the genealogical lists from a common ancestor.

In Bhīma's Dig-vijaya we have two people of this name, both in the east; one along the foot of the Himālaya, and the other more to the south.

Uniformly read in the MSS. Sudeṣṇa.

Three copies read Māhiṣas. We p. 189 have Mahiṣakas amongst the southern people in the Purāṇas; and a Māhishikī in the Rāmāyaṇa, also in the south: the latter may be connected with Māhishmatī, which Sahadeva visits in his southern invasion, and which has been elsewhere conjectured to be in Mysur. (Calcutta Annual Register, 1822,) There is also a Māhishmatī on the road to the south (Mahābh. Udyoga P.), which is commonly identified with Culī Maheśvar, on the Narmadā.

Also Riṣīkas; people placed by the Rāmāyaṇa both in the north and in the south. Arjuna visits the former, and exacts from them eight horses. Dig-vijaya.

Also read Bāhīkas, which we may here prefer, as the Bāhlīkas are subsequently named: the former are described in the Mahābhārata, Karṇa Parva, with some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Puñjab, from the Setlej to the Indus.

These are included amongst the northern nations; Vāyu, &c.; but in Nakula's Dig-vijaya they are in the west.

The Ābhīras, according to the Purāṇas, are also in the north: in the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābh. Sabhā P. they are in the west. The fact seems to be, that the people along the Indus, from Surat to the Himālaya, are often regarded as either western or northern nations, according to the topographical position of the writer: in either case the same tribes are intended.

The MSS. read Kālātoyakas, a people placed by the Purāṇas in the north.

The Vāyu reads Aparītas, a northern nation. There are Aparytæ in Herodotus, classed with a people bordering on India, the Gandari. The term in the text signifies also borderers,' and is probably correct, as opposed to the following word Parāntas; the latter signifying those beyond, and the former those not beyond the borders. The latter has for Parāntas, Parītas; and the Matsya, Parādas.

Also Pahlavas, a northern or northwestern nation, often mentioned in Hindu writings, in Manu, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Purāṇas, &c. They were not a Hindu people, and may have been some of the tribes between India and Persia.

Also Carmakhāṇḍikas, but the sense is the same; those living in the district Maṇḍala or Khaṇḍa of Carma: they are a northern people: Vāyu, &c. Pliny mentions a king of a people so called, “Carmarum rex.”

Read Marubhaumas; more satisfactorily, as it means the inhabitants of Marubhūmī, ‘the desert;’ the sands of Sindh.

Also Surāṣṭras, which is no doubt more correct; the inhabitants of Surat.

The Kekayas or Kaikeyas appear amongst the chief nations in the war of the Mahābhārata, their king being a kinsman of Kṛṣṇa. The Rāmāyaṇa, II. 53, specifies their position beyond, or west of, the Vipāśa.

We have in the Purāṇas Kuṭṭapracaraṇas and Kuṭṭaprāvaraṇas amongst the mountain tribes.

These may be people upon the Mahī river: they are named amongst the southern nations by the Vāyu, &c., but the west is evidently intended.

Read also Kaccas: the Purāṇa have Kacciyas. The form is equally applicable to people dwelling in districts contiguous to water and in marshy spots, and denotes the province still called Cutch.

Also read Adhya, Antya, and Andhra: the latter is the name of Teliṅgana, the Andhri of Pliny.

Three MSS. have Malada, a people of the east in Bhīma's Dig-vijaya.

Also Mānavalakas.

A people of the east.

The western provinces of Bengal, or, as sometimes used in a more comprehensive sense, it includes the following districts: Rajshahi, Dinajpur, and Rangpur; Nadiya, Birbhum, Burdwan, part of Midnapur, and the Jungle Mahals; Ramgerh, Pacete, Palamow, and part of Chunar. See an account of Puṇḍra, translated from what is said to be part of the Brahmaṇḍa section of the Bhaviṣyat Purāṇa. Calcutta Quart. Mag. Dec. 1824.

There is considerable variety in this term, Lārga, Mārja, Samuttara, and Samantara; probably neither is correct. Bhargas are amongst the people subdued in the east by Bhīma.

These are foresters and barbarians in general.

Notwithstanding the celebrity of this country, as the kingdom of Nala, it does not appear exactly where it was situated: we may conclude it was not far from Vidharba (Berar) as that was the country of Damayantī. From the directions given by Nala to Damayantī, it is near the Vindhya mountain and Payoṣṇī river, and roads lead from it across the Rikṣa mountain to Avanti and the south, as well as to Vidarbha and to Kośalā. Nalopākhyāna, sec. 9.

These are always placed in the west: they are fabled to be the descendants of Ānartta, the son of Saryāti, who founded the capital Kuśasthalī afterwards Dvārakā, on the sea-shore in Guzerat.

Also Pratimatsyas; those opposite or adjacent to the Matsyas.

Also Kuśajas and Kośalas; the latter is probably correct, as the name does not occur in any other form than that of Kasikośalā above. Kośalā is a name variously applied. Its earliest and most celebrated application is to the country on the banks of the Sar.ayū, the kingdom of Rāma, of which Ayodhyā was the capital. Rāmāyaṇa, I. s. 5. In the Mahābhārata we p. 191 have one Kośalā in the east, and another in the south, besides the Prak-kośalas and Uttara-kośalas in the east and north, The Purāṇas place the Kośalas amongst the people or the back of Vindhya;' and it would appear from the Vāyu that Kuśa, the son of Rāma, transferred his kingdom to a more central position; he ruled over Kośalā at his capital of Kuśasthalī or Kuśāvatī, built upon the Vindhyan precipices: the same is alluded to in the Pātāla Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa, and in the Raghu Vaṃśa, for the purpose of explaining the return of Kuśa to Ayodhyā. Certainly in later times the country of Kośalā lay south of Oude, for in the Ratnāvalī the general of Vatsa surrounds the king of Kośalā in the Vindhya mountains: (Hindu Theatre, II. 305:) and, as noticed in the same work, (p. 267,) we have in the Purāṇas, Sapta Kośalas, or seven Kośalas. An inscription found at Ratnapur in Chattisgarh, of which I have an unpublished translation, states that Sri-deva, the governor of Malahari Mandala, having obtained the favour of Prithwideva, king of Kośalā, was enabled to build temples, and dig tanks, &c., indicating the extension of the power of Kośalā across the Ganges in that direction. The inscription is dated Samvat 915, or A. D. 858. The Kośalā of the Purāṇas and of the dramatic and poetic writers was however more to the west, along a part of the Vindhya range. Ptolemy has a Kontakossula in the south, probably one of the Kośalas of the Hindus.

Also Itīkas; perhaps the Iṣīkas or Aiṣīkas of the Vāyu, &c. a people of the south.

The people of Kashmir.

One of the chief tribes engaged in the war of the Mahābhārata. The Rāmāyaṇa places them in the west; the Purāṇas in the north. The term Sindhu shews their position to have been upon the Indus, apparently in the Puñjab.

These are also a people of the northwest, found both on the west of the Indus and in the Puñjab, and well known to classical authors as the Gandarii and Gandaridæ. As. Res. XV. 103; also Journal of the R. As. Soc.; Account of the Foe-küe-ki.

From the context this should probably be Darvakas, the people of a district usually specified in connexion with the succeeding.

These are the inhabitants of the country bordering on Cashmir, to the south and west; known to the Greeks as the kingdom of Abisares. It often occurs in composition with Darya, as Darvābhisāra. As. Res. XV. 24.

Also read Ulūṭas and Kulūṭas: the Rāmāyaṇa has Kolūkas or Kaulūṭas amongst the western tribes.

Also with the short vowel, Śaivalas.

The Vāhlīkas or Bāhlīkas are always associated with the people of the north, west, and ultra-Indian provinces, and are usually considered to represent the Bactrians, or people of Balkh. It is specified in the Mahābh. Udyoga P. as famous for its horses, a reputation the country bordering upon it, at least Bokhara and Maimena, still preserves: and in Arjuṇa's Dig-vijaya it is said to be difficult of approach.

These are probably intended for the p. 192 neighbours of the Abhisāras: they are found in the north by Arjuna, Dig-vijaya, and are there termed also Kṣatriyas.

Also read Bāhubādhya and Bahurada.

The name occurs in the Rāmāyaṇa as that of a mountain in the Puñjab or in the Bāhīka country. II. 53.

The MSS. agree in reading this Vānāyava or Vanayus, a people in the northwest, also famous for horses.

A better reading is Dasapārśva, as we have had Daśārṇas before.

Also Ropāṇas; quere, Romans?

Also Gaccas and Kaccas: the last is the best reading, although it has occurred before.

Also Gopāla-kaccas: they are amongst the eastern tribes in Bhīma's Dig-vijaya.

Or Langalas.

Kurujāṅgalas, or the people of the forests in the upper part of the Doab: it is also read Paravallabhas.

The analogy to ‘barbarians’ is not in sound only, but in all the authorities these are classed with borderers and foreigners and nations not Hindu.

Also Dāhas, in which we should have a resemblance to the Scythian Dahæ.

Or Tāmaliptas or Dāmaliptas; the people at the western mouth of the Ganges in Medinipur and Tamluk. Tāmraliptī was a celebrated sea-port in the fourth century, (Account of the Poe-küe-ki,) and retained its character in the ninth and twelfth. Daśa Kumāra Charitra and Vrihat Katha; also Journ. Royal As. Soc.

The people of Odra or Orissa.

The inhabitants of Puṇḍra: see note 73.

The people of the Coromandel coast, from Madras southwards; those by whom the Tamil language is spoken.

The people of Malabar proper.

Also Prāsyas. Prācyas properly means the people of the east, the Prasii of the Greeks, east of the Ganges.

Mūṣika is the southernmost part of the Malabar coast, Cochin and Travancore.

Also Vānavāsinas and Vānavāsikas; the inhabitants of Banawasi, the Banavasi of Ptolemy, a town the remains of which are still extant in the district of Sunda.

The people of the centre of the Peninsula, the proper Kernāta or Carnatie.

The people of Mysore: see note 54.

Also Vikalpas.

Also Puṣkalas,

Also Karṇikas.

Read Kuntikas.

Variously read Nalakālaka, Nabhakānana, and Tilakanija.

Kaukundaka and Kaukuntaka.

The inhabitants of the lower part of the Coromandel coast; so called after them Chola-maṇḍala.

People of the Konkan: according to some statements there are seven districts so named.

Malavanara and Śālavāṇaka.

These two words are sometimes compounded as Kukkurāṅgāra: it is also read Kanurājada.

This is a questionable name, though the MSS. agree. We have in Arjuna's Dig-vijaya, Utsavamanketa; and in Nakula's, to the west, Utsavasaṅketa.

These are amongst the warriors of the Mahābhārata; they are included in all the lists amongst the northern tribes, and are mentioned in the Rājātaranginī as not far from Kashmir: they are considered to be the people of Lahone.

Also Vyūkas and Vrikas: the latter are specified amongst the central nations: Vāyu, &c.

Kokavakas and Kokanakhas.

Śāras and Vegasaras; also Parasañcārakas.

Vindhyapālakas and Vindhyamūlikas: the latter, those at the foot of Vindhya, are named in the Paurāṇik lists amongst the southern tribes.

Balwala and Valkaja.

Also Mālaka and Mājava.

Also Vallabhas, which from the succeeding word may be conjectured to be correct. A city named Vallabhī makes a great figure in the traditions of Rajputana. See Tod's Rajasthan.

One of the tribes in the west or north-west subdued by Arjuna.

Kālada and Dohada.

Kundala, Karantha, and Maṇḍaka: the latter occurs in the Rāmāyaṇa amongst the eastern nations.

Kuraṭa, Kunaka.

Stanabāla.

Satīrtha, Satīya, Nārīya.

The Śriñjayas are a people from the north-west amongst the warriors of the Mahābhārata: the reading may be incorrect. It occurs also Putīsriñjaya.

Also Aninda.

Also Sivata, Sirāla, Syuvaka.

Tanapa, Stanapa, Sutapa.

Pallipañjaka and Vidarbha.

Dadhividarbha, but three copies have Ṛṣika. Great variety, and no doubt great inaccuracy, prevails in the MSS. in several of the names ]sere given: they are not found elsewhere.

The reading of three copies is Kākas: there is a tribe so called on the banks of the Indus, as it leaves the mountains.

These and the following are mountaineers p. 194 in the north-west. The former are placed by the Purāṇas in the north, and the Vāyu includes them also amongst the mountain tribes. The Rāmāyaṇa has Tankanas in the north.

The term Yavanas, although in later times applied to the Mohammedans, designated formerly the Greeks, as observed in the valuable notes on the translation of the Birth of Umā, from the Kumāra Sambhava. (Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, July 1833.) The Greeks were known throughout western Asia by the term ‏ו יון‎, Yavan; or Ion, Ἰαονες; the Yavana, ###, of the Hindus; or as it occurs in its Prakrit form, in the very curious inscription decyphered by Mr. Prinsep, (J. As. Soc. Beng. Feb. 1838,) Yona: the term Yona Rājā being there associated with the name Antiochus, in all likelihood Antiochus the Great, the ally of the Indian prince Sophagasenas, about B. C. 210. That the Macedonian or Bactrian Greeks were most usually intended is not only probable from their position and relations with India, but from their being usually named in coñcurrence with the north-western tribes, Kambojas, Daradas, Pāradas, Bāhlikas, Śakas, &c. in the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, Manu, and in various poems and plays.

Chinas, or Chinese, or rather the people of Chinese Tartary, are named in the Rāmāyaṇa and Manu, as well as in the Purāṇas. If the designation China was derived from the Tsin dynasty, which commenced B. C. 260, this forms a limit of antiquity for the works in question. The same word however, or Tsin, was the ancient appellation of the northern province of Shen-sy, and it may have reached the Hindus from thence at an earlier period.

These Wilford regards as the people of Arachosia. They are always mentioned together with the north-western tribes, Yavanas, Śakas, and the like: they are also famous for their hoses; and in the Rāmāyaṇa they are said to be covered with golden lotuses. What is meant is doubtful, probably some ornament or embellishment of their dress. We have part of the name, or Kambi, in the Cambistholi of Arrian: the last two syllables, no doubt, represent the Sanscrit Sthala, ‘place,’ ‘district;’ and the word denotes the dwellers in the Kamba or Kambis country: so Kāmboja may be explained those born in Kamba or Kambas.

Also Śakridvaha or Śakridguha.

Also Kulaccas and Kuntalas: the Purāṇas have Kupathas amongst the mountain tribes.

Also Pārataka: the first is not a common form in the Purāṇas, although it is in poetical writings, denoting, no doubt, the Persians, or people of Pars or Fars: the latter, also read Pāradas, may imply the same, as beyond (Pāra) the Indus.

We have Ramathas in Nakula's Dig-vijaya, and in the Vāyu and Matsya.

Daśamānas and Deśamānikas, in the north: Vāyu and Matsya.

The passage occurs in the Vāyu and Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas, as well as in the Mahābhārata; but the purport is not very distinct, and the proper reading is doubtful. p. 195 In three MSS. of the latter it occurs ### the latter pāda is the same in all: the former, is ### in a fourth copy, in two copies of the Vāyu it is ###. None of these are intelligible, and the Mārkaṇḍeya furnishes the reading followed, Modern geographers have supposed the Cathæi, Cathari, and Chatriæi of the ancients, in the lower parts of the Puñjab, to mean a people of Kṣatriyas; but no such people occur directly named in our lists. Considering that the text is speaking of barbarous and foreign tribes, perhaps no particular nation is here meant, and it may be intended as an epithet of those which follow, or of Vaiśya (agricultural) and Śūdra (servile or low) tribes, living either near to, or after the manner of Kṣatriyas: in that case a better reading would be, ###. According to Manu, various northern tribes, the Śakas, Kāmbojas, Pāradas, Pahlavas, Kirātas, Daradas, and Khasas, and even the Chinas and Yavanas, are degraded Kṣatriyas, in consequence of neglecting religious rites. X. 43, 44. According to the Paurāṇik legend they were overcome in war by Sagara, and degraded from their original caste. See book IV.

Here we have a people called Śūdras by all the authorities, and placed in the west or north-west, towards the Indus. They have been ingeniously, and with probability, conjectured by Mr. Lassen to be the Oxydracæ; for Śūdraka is equally correct with Śūdra; and in place of Ὀξυδράκαι various MSS. of Strabo, as quoted by Siebenkees, read Σιδράκαι and Συδράκαι: the latter is precisely the Sanscrit appellation. Pliny also has Sudraci for the people who formed the limit of Alexander's eastern conquests, or those hitherto inaccurately called Oxydracæ.

These are always conjoined with the Śūdras, as if conterminous. Their situation is no doubt correctly indicated by Ptolemy by the position of Abiria above Pattalene on the Indus.

The Durds are still where they were at the date of our text, and in the days of Strabo and Ptolemy; not exactly, indeed, at the sources of the Indus, but along its course, above the Himālaya, just before it descends to India; a position which might well be taken for its head.

Also read Paśus, ‘brutes.’ If the term might be altered to Palli, it would imply ‘village or pastoral tribes.’

Also Khasīkas and Khasākas. The first of these is probably most correct, being equivalent to Khasas, barbarians named along with the Śakas and Daradas by Manu, &c.; traces of whom may be sought amongst the barbarous tribes on the north-east of Bengal, the Kasiyas; or it has been thought that they may be referred to the situation of Kashgar. Two copies have, in place of this, Tukhāras, and the same occurs in the Rāmāyaṇa; the Vāyu has Tuṣāras, but the Mārkaṇḍeya, Tukhāra: these are probably the Tochari, Tacari, or Thogari, a tribe of the Śakas, by whom Bactria was taken from the Greeks, and from whom Tocharestan derives the name it still bears.

Also Pahlavas and Pallavas. The form in the text is the more usual.

The Rāmāyaṇa has Gahvaras. The mountains from Kabul to Bamian furnish infinitely numerous instances of cavern habitations.

These two, according to the Vāyu, are amongst the northern nations; but they might be thought to be religious fraternities, from the sages Atri and Bharadwaja.

The latter member of the compound occurs poshikas, pāyikas, and yodhikas, ‘cherishers,’ ‘drinkers,’ or ‘fighters:’ the first term denotes the female breast.

Also Droṇakas, ‘people of vallies.’

Also Kajiṅgas. Kaliṅgas would be here out of place.

These and the preceding are included by the Vāyu amongst the mountain tribes of the north.

Many names indeed might be added to the catalogue from the lists referred to in the Vāyu, Matsya, and Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas, as well as several capable of verification from the Rāmāyaṇa, and other passages of the Mahābhārata. This is not the place however to exhaust the subject, and it has been prosecuted too far perhaps already. It is evident that a very considerable proportion of the names recorded can be verified, and that many of them may be traced in the geographical notices of India left by the historians of Alexander's expedition. That more cannot be identified is owing in a great measure to incomplete research; and a more extensive examination of the authorities would no doubt discover passages where circumstances, as well as names, are given by which the places would be recognised. It is evident, however, that much embarrassment also arises from the inaccuracy of manuscripts, which vary widely and irreconcilably. I have given instances from four different copies of the text; one in my own possession, three in the library of the East India Company; all very excellent copies, but manifestly erroneous in many respects in their nomenclature of places, and particularly of those which are least known. No assistance is to be had from any commentary, as the subject is one of little interest in native estimation.