________________
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE PULINDAS
The Pulindas were a people belonging to the aboriginal stock, and have often been classed with such non-Aryan tribes as the Sabaras, Ābhīras, Pulkusas, etc. They are usually definitely stated to be a southern tribe, but there seems to have been a northern branch of the Pulindas as well.
The association of the Pulindas with the Andhras and Savaras, as also with the Pundras and Mūtibas, is as old as the Aitareya Brāhmana (VII, 18), where it is stated that the elder sons of Viśvāmitra were cursed to become progenitors of such races as the Andhras, Pundras, Savaras, Pulindas and Mūtibas.
The Mahābhārata 2 places the Pulindas in the Daksiņāpatha (Deccan), along with the Andhras, Guhas, Savaras, Cucukas and Madrakas. The Matsya and Vāyu Purānas s also describe them as Dakṣiṇāpatha-vāsinaḥ (dwelling in the Deccan), along with the Vaidarbħas, Dandakas, Vindhyas and others. The Mārkandeya Purāņa 4 too places the Pulindas in the Deccan, and classes them with the Pundrakas, Keralas, Kalingas, Ābhiras, Andhras, Vidarbhas and Kuntalas. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2, 4, 18) associates them with the Kirātas, Hūņas, Andhras, Pukkusas, Ābhīras, Suhmas, Yavanas and Khaśas, all of whom sought the protection of Sri Krsna.
* In the Bengali recension of the Rāmāyana (Kiskindhyā K., XLI, 17; XLIV, 12), the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The northern recension knows only of the northern Pulindas (Kiskindhyā K., XLIII). The Visnupurāna 5 associates the Pulindakas (probably identical with the Pulindas) with the Sindhus: the two peoples are coupled in a compound-Sindhu
1 Roth, Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda, p. 133. 2 XII, 207, 42. 3 Teşām pare janapadā Dakşiņāpatha-vāsinaḥ
Kārūṣāśca sahaisīkā Ātavyāḥ śavarāstathā Pulindā Vindhyapușikā Vaidarbhā Dandakaiḥ saha (Matsya, 114, 46-8). Ābhīrāḥ saha caisīkāh Ātavyāh Savarāśca ye
Pulindā Vindhyamulikā Vaidarbhā Dandakaih saha (Vāyu, 45, 126). 4 57, 45-8. The Pulindas are also mentioned in the Brahmānda Purāna (see Pūrva Bhāga, 16, 40ff.), Brahma P. (27, 41ff.), Vāmana P. (13, 35ff.), Garuda P.
(55, Ioff.).
5 See Wilson, Vişnu P. tr., Vol. 2 (1865), pp. 156ff.
