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112 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA of a non-Aryan country. In later works Kikata is given as a synonym of Magadha.?
Like Yāska the author of the Brihad-dharma Purūna... apparently regarded Kikata as an impure country which, however, included a few holy spots :
Kikațe nāma desesti Kāka-karnākhyako niipah prajānām hitakrinnityam Brahma-dveshakarastathā tatra dese Gayā nāma punyadeso' sti visrutal nadi cha Karnada nāma pitļinām svargadāyini? Kikate cha mrito' pyesha pāpablitmau na samsayah.
It is clear from these verses that Kikata included the Gayā district, but the greater part of it was looked upon as an unholy region (pāpabhūmi, doubtless corresponding to the anārya-nivāsa of Yāska). Kāka-karņa of line 1, may be the same as Kāka-varna of the Saišunāga family.
The name Magadha first appears in the Atharva-Vedawhere fever is wished away to the Gandhāris, Mūjavats, Angas, and Magadhas. The bards of Magadha are, how. ever, mentioned as early as the Yajur-Veda. They are usually spoken of in the early Vedic literature in terms of contempt. In the Vrātya book of the Atharva Samhitā, the Vrātya i.e., the Indian living outside the pale of Brāhmaộism, is brought into very special relation to the purschali
1 Kikateshu Gayā punya punyam Rajagriham vanam
Chyāvanasyāśramam punyam nadi punya punahpunā. Cf. Vayu, 108. 73 ; 105. 23. Bhāgavata Purāna, I. 3. 24 : Buddho namnañjana-sutaḥ Kikateshu bhavishyati : ibid vii. 10.19; Sridhara Kikateshu madhye Gayā-pradese". Abhidhāna-chintamani, "Kikață Magadhāhvayān." For an epigraphic reference to Kikata see Ep. Ind. II. 222, where a prince of that name is connected with the Maurya family. See also 'Kekateyaka' (Monuments of Sanchi, I. 302)
2 Madhya-Khandam, XXVI. 20. 22. 3 XXVI. .47; cf. Vāyu p. 78.22 ; Padma Patālakhanda, XI. 45. 4 V. 22. 14.
5 vaj. Sam XXX. 5; Vedic Index, II. 116. For the connection of the Māgadhas with Magadha, see Vayu p. 62.147.
6 XV. ii. 5-Sraddhā pumíchali Mitro Māgadho...etc; Griffith II. 186.
