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CHAPTER XXVI
THE NIŞADHAS The Nişadhas were a different race from the Nisādas with whom they are often confounded; and we may conclude that they belonged to the Aryan fold. According to the Epic and Paurānic tradition, the Nişadhas are said to have sprung from the primeval King Prthu, son of Veņa.1 The tribe seems to have derived its name from Nisadha who is described in the Purānas and Bhagavadgītā to have been the son of Atithi, grandson of Kuśa, and father of Nala. According to the Vişnupurāņa (IV, Chap. 24, 17), the ten kings of the Mekala country and nine of the Sapta Kośala country are said to have been succeeded by the nine kings of the Nişadhas, while, according to the Vāyupurāna, the kings of the Nişadha country held sway till the end of the days of Manu. They were all descendants of King Nala, and lived in the country of Nişadha (Vāyu P., Chap. 99, 376). This King Nala of the Purāņas must be identical with the King Nala whose story is referred to in the Mahābhārata (III). 3
But notwithstanding the celebrity of the Nişadha country as the kingdom of Nala, it is difficult to ascertain exactly where it was situated. It is, perhaps, permissible to conjecture that it was not very far from Vidarbha, the country of Nala's queen, Damayanti. From the directions given by Nala to Damayanti, Wilson thinks 4 that it was near the Vindhyas and Payosni river, and that it was near the roads leading from it across the Rksa mountain to Avanti and the south, as well as to Vidarbha and to Košala. Lassen places Nişadha, the kingdom of Nala, along the Satpura hills to the north-west of Berar. Burgess also places it to the south of Malwa.
The Purāņas locate the Nişadhas in the upper and lower regions of the Vindhya ranges. According to the Mahābhārata, the capital of the Nişadhas was Giriprastha (III, 324, 12).
i Vāyu P., 62, 137-48; Brahmānda P., II, 36, 158-73; Kūrma P., 1, 1, 6; Ibid., 14, 12; Siva P., VII, 56, 30-1; Mbh., XII, 59, 2233-4, etc.
2 Kūrma P., 21, 58; Bhagavadgītā, 9, 12, 1; Saura P., 30, 69; Śiva P., Dharma, 61-9; Brahma P., 8, 88.
3 The Nala story itself seems to have been much older than the Mahābhārata, for it is referred to by Sitā in the Rāmāyana (Ray Chaudhuri, Studies in Indian Antiquities, Chap. on Interrelation of the two Epics).
4 Vişnu purāna, Vol. II, pp. 156-90. 5 Antiquities of Kathiawar and Kacch, p. 131. o Brahmānda P., 49; Vāyu P., 45; Vāmana P., 13, etc.
