Early History of Orissa

SR No.: 006922
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Amarchand Mittal
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 506
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 256

POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY
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yanas (Descendants of Arjuna), whose territory lay, probably, within the triangle Delhi-Jaipur-Agra.? Cunningham, however, procured his coin specimens of these people in Mathura. Both of these tribal oligarchies issued coins as early as the first Century B. C. A common legend on the coins of these people reads "Yaudheya-ganasya jaya' viz. Victory of the Yaudheyas and Arjunāyanānām jaya' viz. Victory of the Arjunāyanas respectively. Later on, they appear among the peoples on the frontier of the Gupta empire as has been mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta."
The mountainous fringe of country, to the north of the Punjab and the Uttara Pradeśa, was also occupied at this period by independent native tribes, and the names of some of them have similarly been preserved by coins. Among them are the Udumbaras, who claim to be descended from Viśvāmitra mentioned in the third book of the Rigveda. Viśvāmitra's figure appears on the coins of Dh
ha, who ruled in the latter half of the first Century B.C.
Likewise, there were the Kulutas, the Kunindas, the Sibis, the Madrakas or Madras-- all in the Punjab; the Uddehikas in the Madhyadeśa between Kannauj and Mathura ; the Uttamabhadras, immediate neighbours of the Mālvas in the Rajputana; the Abhiras having various
1. Allan, CAT, p. Ixxxii; JRAS, 1897, p. 886. 2. Allan, CAI, p. cli. 3. Ibid, 1). Ixxxii. 4. Rapscn, In lian Coins, pp. 11-13.
5. Pargitor, Markandeya Purana, p. 355. For the connection between Visvämitra and the couriry of tho Deis, refer to the Vedic Index Vol. II, p. 310; Rapson, CHI, Vol. I, p. 529.
6. Dharaghosha imitatad the coins of Azilises. Compare Plate V, 14 with Plate V. 15 in the CHI, Vol. I.