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KINGS AND PHOPLES
,103
The Pali Andhakaveņhu, offered as the personal name of Vasudeva brothers' fosterfather, is only a wrong Prakrit form of the Sk. Andhaka-Vrsņis who represented two out of the four branches of the Sātvatas, the other two being the Daivāvždhas and the Mahābhojas. The Sātvatas themselves were one of the septs of the Yadavas. According to the Mahābhārata and the Purānas, the ruling family of Mathurā belonged to the race of Yadu. Krşņa-Vāsudeva and his brothers wore Andhaka-Vršņis or Yādavas. The connection of Kroņa with the land of the Sūrasenas is confirmed also by the Greek writers who mention Methora (Mathură) and Cleisobora (Krşņapura) as two of their important cities. Dr. Raychaudhuri rightly observes:'The Andhakas and Vfsnis are referred to in the Astādhyāyī of Pāņini (iv, 1.114; vi, 2.34). In Kautilya's Arthasāstra the Vranis are described as a Sangha, i.e., a republican corporation. The Mahābhārata, too, refers to the Vrsnis, Andhakas and other associate tribes as a Sangha (sii, 81.25) and Väsudeva as a Sanghamukhya.'1 a
The early Jaina and Buddhist texts have very little to say regarding the Avantis as a people. According to the Mahāgovinda Suttanta, when the empire of Reņu, probably a powerful
1 Raychaudhuri, op. cit., 4th ed., p. 118
