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THE AMBASHTHAS
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part of the Kaurava host in the Kurukshetra war.1 Curtius tells us that the Sudracae and the Malli had an army consisting of 90,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 cavalry and 900 war chariots.
Sir R. G. Bhandarkar informs us that Panini refers to the Malavas as living by the profession of arms.3 In later times they are found in Rajputāna, Avanti and the Mahi valley.
20. The Abastanoi:
Diodoros calls them the Sambastai, Arrian Abastanoi, Curtius Sabarcae, and Orosius Sabagrae. They were settled on the lower Akesines (Chenab) apparently below the Malava country, but above the confluence of the Chenab and the Indus. Their name represents the Sanskrit Ambashtha or Ambashṭha. The Ambashṭhas are mentioned in several Sanskrit and Pali works. An Ambashṭha king is mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana whose priest was Narada. The Mahabharata" mentions the Ambashṭhas along with the Sivis, Kshudrakas, Mälavas and other north-western tribes. The Puranas represent them as Anava Kshatriyas and kinsmen of the Sivis. In the Burhaspatya Arthasastra, the Ambashṭha country is mentioned in conjunction with Sind :
6
Kasmira-Hun-Ambashṭha-Sindhavaḥ.
1. EHI., 1914. p. 94n.; Mbh., VI. 59. 135.
2 Invasion of Alexander, 234.
3 Ind. Ant., 1913, p. 200.
4 Invasion of Alexander, p. 292.
5 Dr. Surya Kanta draws a distinction between Ambashṭha and Ambashṭha, regarding the former as a place-name, and the latter as the name of a particular class of people, an elephant-driver, a Kshatriya, a mixed caste'. (B. C. Law Vol. II. pp. 127ff). To us the distinction seems to be based upon philological conjectures..
6 VIH. 21.
7 II. 52. 14-15.
8 Pargiter, AIHT., pp. 108. 109.
9 Ed. F. W. Thomas, p. 21.
