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CHAPTER XXXIX
THE RĀȘTRIKAS
The Rāştrikas are mentioned for the first time in the Rock Edicts of Asoka (V and XIII), along with the Andhras, Pulindas and Bhojas who were included as vassal tribes within Asoka's dominions. The Andhras, Pulindas and Bhojas were known as early as the time of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, but the Rāştrikas find no mention there. The tribe had evidently not come into importance at that time.
* Even after Asoka's time the Rāstrikas continued to be associated with the Bhojas. In the Hāthigumphā Inscriptions of King Khāravela of Kalinga (c. 150 B.C.), that monarch is said to have defeated the Bhojakas and Rāķhikas (i.e. the Bhojas and Rāştrikas of Asokan inscriptions) in the fourth year of his reign, and to have compelled them to do him homage.
The Sātavāhana records refer to two tribes, Mahābhojas and Mahārathis (Smith, Asoka, 4th Ed., p. 225), who were evidently identical with the earlier Bhojas and Rāstrikas, and it is clear that the Rāstrikas or Mahārathis were the ancestors of the present Mahārāstra people or Mārāțhas (cf. R. G. Bhandarkar, Anc. History of the Deccan).
The Bhojas were located in the Vidarbha or modern Berar region, which is included within modern Mārāthi-speaking districts. The Rāstrikas who were so frequently associated with them must have occupied the adjoining tracts, and it may be assumed that they were located in the very region where the present Mārāțhas dwell.
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