Tribes In Ancient India

SR No.: 007311
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 132 MB

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152
TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
seems to suggest that the people originated from the Rsi Prabhākara of Atri's race (XXXI, 1660-8) whence came the name of the tribe Ātreya.
THE BHARADVĀJAS What is true of the Atreyas seems to be equally true of the Bharadvājas or Bhāradvājas. The Mārkandeya list (LVII, 39-40) mentions the tribe along with the Ātreyas, Puşkalas, Lampākas, etc., and locates them in the north. They are also mentioned in the Bhīşmaparvan list (IX, 376) in the same context as that of the Ātreyas; the Great Epic tradition connects Bhāradvāja with the upper Gangetic region near the hills (Ādiparvan, CXXX, 5102-6; CLXVI, 6328–32; Vanaparvan, CXXXV, 10700-28; Śalyaparvan, XLIX, 2762-2824), and Bhāradvāja, the Rşi, was evidently the originator of the race or tribe. Like the Ātreyas, it is tempting to connect the people of various caste divisions of present-day India claiming to belong to the Bhāradvāja gotra with the Bhāradvāja tribe.
THE LAMPĀKAS The Lampākas are mentioned in the Mārkandeya list (LVII, 40) along with the Kuśerukas, Sūlakāras, Culikas, Jāgudas, etc. as a people of the north. The Matsyapurāna reads (CXIII, 43) Lampākas instead, which is no doubt wrong. The Mahābhārata (Dronaparvan, CXXI, 4846-7) also mentions the tribe and seems to suggest that they were a rude mountain tribe like the Daradas and Pulindas. Long ago Cunningham identified the region of the Lampākas with modern Lamghan, hundred miles to the east of Kapisene, northeast of Kabul, which practically upholds Lassen's identification of the place with Lambagae, south of the Hindu Kush in modern Kafiristan.
If the tradition contained in Hemacandra's Abhidhānacintāmaņi is to be believed, then Lampāka seems to have once been the centre of the Sai-wang or the Saka-Muranda people (Lampākāstu Murandāh syuh).