Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 533

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATÍ SUTRA
(Ch. VIII
Damili, Singhali, Pulindi, Pulkhali, Bahalı, Murundi, Sabari and Pārasi. Most of these names occur also in other Jaina texts, the Purānas and foreign accounts and are well-known and can be identified with certainty, while the others are obscure and unidentifiable.
Cilāiyās (Cilātikās)
The Cilāiyās (Skt. Kirātas) are also mentioned in other Jain texts," Brāhmanical works," epigraphic records and foreign accounts as a distinct non-Aryan tribe. In the Nāgārjunīkunda Inscription the Cilātas are branded as dishonest traders. Of the foreign sources the Skyrites of the account of Magasthenes, having merely orifices instead of nostrils probably represent the Kirātas. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions "the Cirrahadae -- a race of men with flattened noses, very savages" among many barbarous tribes settled over a region beyond Bengal towards the north.
Ptolemy places Kyrrahadae among the tribes of Sogdian (modern Soghd) which is separated from Bactrianā by the river Oxus.
Thus it is known that the Cilātas were settled over the regions along with greater parts of the southern side of the Himālayas and they also inhabited the eastern region of India near the river Brahmaputra in Assam, eastern parts of Tibet (Bhota), eastern Nepal and Tiperah.
Babbariyās (Barbarikās)
The Babbariyās are the peoples of the
Barbara
tribe
1 Jambuddiva Pannatti, 56. p. 23. ? Mbh., XII, 207; Vienu purāna (Wilson's edition, pp. 156-90.
Srimat Bhagavat Gitā, II. 4.18. 9 Nagarjunakunda Inscription of Virapurisadatta, 14th regnal
year. 4 Magasthenes India ; Periplus of Erythraean Sea Schoff ;
Ptolemy-Mc. Crindle-Ancient India, p. 277. 5 Lé Nepāl. II. pp. 72-8, Sylvain Levi. & J. A, S. B. XIX. Leong-Chronicles of Tripură p. 536,