Tribes In Ancient India

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

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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
The early capital cities of Gandhāra (each being the centre of its own kingdom) were Puskalāvati or Puskarāvatī, and Taksaśīlā (Taxila), -the former being situated to the west and the latter to the east of the Indus. It would appear that in early times the Gandhāra territory lay on both sides of the Indus, but was later confined to the western side (McCrindle, p. 115). As we have just seen, Hsüan Tsang knew Puruşapura (= Peshawar) as the capital; and yet another city, namely, Kāpisa, was a Gandhāran capital during the days of Greek rule.
According to Cunningham, the most ancient capital of Gandhāra was Puskarāvatī, which is said to have been founded by Puşkara, son of Bharata and nephew of Rāma.2 Puşkalāvati's antiquity is undoubted, as it was the capital of an Indian Prince named Hasti (Greek Astes) at the time of Alexander's expedition (326 B.C.). It is called Peukelaotis by Arrian and Peukalei by Dionysius Periegetes. Together with Takşaśīlā, Puşkalāvati came under the Saka rule during the reign of Maues 3 (c. 75 B.C.). Tārānātha mentions the town as a royal residence of Kaniska's son (Vincent Smith, Early History of India, 4th Ed., p. 277, f.n. I).
Shi-shi-ch'eng, the Chinese name for Takşaśīlā, the Eastern capital of Gandhāra, means 'severed head'. The legend goes that when the Buddha was a Bodhisattva in this city, he gave his head away in charity, and the city took its name from this circumstance.4 The city as described by Arrian was great, wealthy and populous. Strabo and Hsüan Tsang praise the fertility of its soil. Pliny calls it a famous city, and states that it was situated on a level where the hills sank down into the plains. About 80 years after Taksaśīlā's submiss
on to Alexander, it was taken by Asoka; while by the early part of the second century B.C. it had become a province of the Graeco-Baktrian monarchy, only to be conquered in 126 B.C.5 by the Indo-Skythian Sus or Abars, who retained it until it was taken from them by a different tribe of the same nationality, under Kaniska (c. 78 B.C.). About the middle of the first century A.D. it is said to have been visited by Apollonius of Tyana and his companion Damis, who described it as being about the size of Nineveh, walled like a Greek city, with narrow but well-arranged streets. Takşaśīlā must have been destroyed long before the Muhammadan
1 Rapson, Ancient India, pp. 133, 141-2. 2 Visnupurāna, Wilson's Edition, Vol. IV, Ch. 4.
3 Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 560; see also Brown, Coins of India, p. 24.
4 Legge, Fā-Hien, p. 32. 5 But note discrepancy in dates of conquest.