Tribes In Ancient India

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Page 27

CHAPTER II
THE GANDHĀRAS
Gandhāra formed an integral part of India from the earliest epoch of Indo-Aryan civilisation, and is unique among the countries of India, in that its history may be traced in unbroken continuity from Rigvedic times down to the present day 1 (Rapson, Ancient India, p. 81). The Gandhāris 2 or people of Gandhāra are mentioned in the hymns of the Rgveda, while the name Gandhāra occurs in the other Vedas, and in the Epics and Purāṇas as well as the Buddhist books.
Gandhāra was on the N.W. frontiers of India in the neighbourhood of the Kāmbojas, Madras and similar other tribes, but there are differences of opinion among scholars with regard to its exact boundaries. It is generally accepted that Gandhāra denotes the region comprising the modern districts of Peshawar in the N.W. Frontier Province and Rawalpindi in the Punjab; but in the Old Persian inscriptions it seems to include also the district of Kābul in Afghānistān (see Rapson, Ancient India, p. 81). Rhys Davids (Buddhist India, p. 28) says that Gandhāra (modern Kandahar) 3 was the district of E. Afghānistān, probably including the N.W. Punjab. Vincent Smith apparently concurs with this view, saying that Gandhāra was equivalent to the N.W. Punjab and the adjoining regions. Dr. S. K. Aiyangar holds that Gandhāra was equivalent to E. Afghanistān, extending from the Afghan mountains to the district somewhat to the East of the Indus (Ancient India, p. 7). According to Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar, Gandhāra included the western Punjab and E. Afghānistān. Its capital was Takshaśīlā where ruins are spread near Sarāīkālā in the Rawalpindi District of the Punjab. In the Ain-zAkbari, Gandhāra forms the district of Pukely lying between Kashmir and Attock. Gandhāra, says N. L. Dey, comprised the modern districts of Peshawar and Hoti Murdan or what is called the Eusofzai
1 Rapson, Ancient India, 81. 2 Gandhāri is the Vedic form, later supplanted by Gandhāra.
3 There is no proved etymological connection between the names Kandahar and Gandhāra. See McCrindle, Ptolemy, p. 116.
4 V. A. Smith, Asoka, 170. 5 Carmichael Lectures, 1918, p. 54.