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

Page 72

CHAPTER VII
THE MADRAS
1
The Madras were an ancient Kṣatriya tribe of Vedic times. They are not mentioned in the early Vedic Samhitas, but the Vamsa Brāhmaṇa of the Samaveda mentions an ancient Vedic teacher, Madragara Saungayani, from whom Aupamanyava, the Kambojan, received the Vedic lore (cf. chapter on Kambojas). From the name Madragāra, scholars infer that Saungayani belonged to the Madra tribe,2 and the fact that Vedic learning had spread so much among the Madras as to give one of them a prominent place in a list of ancient teachers would seem to show that the Madras belonged to the Vedic Aryandom before the age of the Brahmanas. Their Vedic learning in Brahmana times is testified to by the Satapatha Brahmana where we find that sages of N. India, most probably of the Kuru-Pañcāla district, repaired to the Madra country to receive their education in Vedic learning. In the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad (III, 7, 1), Uddālaka Aruni tells Vajñavalkya: 'We dwelt among the Madras in the houses of Patañcala Kapya, studying the sacrifice'. And again, Bhujyu Lähāyani says, 'We wandered about as students, and came to the house of Patañcala Kapya' (Brh. Up., III, 3, 1).
In the Aitareya Brahmana (VIII, 14, 3), we find the mention of a section of the Madra people, the Uttara or N. Madras who lived beyond the Himalayas (parena Himavantam) in the N. regions close to the Uttara-Kurus. Uttara-Madra is supposed by scholars to have been located in Kashmir.3
In the Rāmāyaṇa, we read that Sugrīva sent monkeys to the Madrakas and other tribes in quest of Sītā. In the Visnupurāna (2, 3, 17), mention is made of Madra together with Arama, Parasika, etc. and in the Matsyapurana (114, 41) together with Gāndhāra, Yavana, etc. In the same Purana (208, 5), King Aśvapati of Sakala in the kingdom of the Madras is referred to. Madra (Pali Madda) is not mentioned in the list of sixteen Mahajanapadas in Buddhist literature. It has been supposed by some that Madra is to be identified with Vählika 5 (see Chapter on Vählikas). The Madras
1 Mr. H. C. Ray has contributed a paper to the J.A.S.B. (New Series, Vol. XVIII, 1922, No. 4) on the same subject.
2 Vedic Index, II, p. 123.
3 Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 102.
4 Rāmāyana (Griffith's translation), Additional Notes, p. 43.
5 N. L. Dey, Geographical Dictionary, p. 49.