Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 540

Sec. V]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
515
century B. C. The Indo-Greek relation began long before
Demetrius since the time of Indian invasion of Alexander in the fourth Century B. C. It may be presumed that some Bactrian female slaves might have been imported to India in course of trade to be employed in the service of the royal and rich aristocratic families in North-Eastern India.
Murundis (Murundas)
The Murundis of the BS also appear in other ancient works of India, epigraphic records and foreign accounts as a distinct foreign race who migrated from outside and settled over different parts of India by establishing their rule which continued upto the period of Candragupta II, the Gupta king. In the Vayu Purāna1 they are described as a Mleccha tribe known by the name 'Marunda', while Ptolemy mentions them as Moroundai and places them on the Western border of the Gangaradai. The Abhidhana Cintamani of Hema candras identifies the Murundas with the Lampakas, the Lambatas of Ptolemy who are located in the vicinity of the fountain head of the modern Kabul river in the region around Laghaman (Langhana). In the Allahabad pillar Inscription of Samudragupta' the Saka-Murundas are mentioned along with the other foreign potentates who came of their own accord to pay their homage to the Gupta king while a MurundaSwamin is referred to in a Central India Inscription of the 6th Century A. D. Sten Konow thinks that the word 'Murunda' signified 'Lord' as the later form of the word 'Saka'. It appears from the study of these evidences together with the epigraphic' and numismatic records of the Sakas that the Murundas were a
1 Vayu Purana; Vide, Tribes in Ancient India p. 94. Ptolemy's A.I.-M.C. pp. 215-6.
8 Abhidhana Cintamani, IV, 26.
4 Allāhābād Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta.
6 Vide, Tribes in Ancient India: B. C. Law. 94.
Cf. Allahabad Pillar Inscription; Vide, Select Inscriptions of Dr. D. C. Sirkar.
7 Taxila Silvar Scroll. Ins. of Patika; Mathura Ins. of Soḍāsa,
etc.
8 Coins of Indo-Scythic rulers (Gardener); Andhra coins: Rapson.