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CHAPTER LXVII
THE KĀKAS, KHARAPARIKAS AND SANAKĀNIKAS
These three tribal peoples are referred to in the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta, along with the Mālavas, Arjunāyanas, Yaudheyas, Madrakas, Abhiras and Prārjunas. Recent researches have ascertained that the better-known among these tribes-i.e. the Mālavas, Yaudheyas, Madras and Abhiras—inhabited the regions on the western, north-western and south-western fringe of Āryāvarta proper; and it is likely that the Kākas, Kharaparikas and Sanakānikas also occupied this region.
So far as is known, there is no other mention of the Sanakānikas, either in literature or in any other epigraphic record except the Udayagiri Cave Inscription of G.E. 82 which mentions a Mahārāja of the Sanakānika tribe. Udayagiri is just two miles to the northwest of Bhilsa, ancient Vidiśā.
The name Kharaparika does not occur elsewhere in inscriptions or literature; but Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar1 finds a probable identification of the tribe with Kharpara mentioned in the Bāțihāgarh Inscription of the Damoh District of the Central Provinces. The Mārkandeya Purāna (LVIII, 47) mentions a tribe called Kharasāgara-rāsīs, along with the Gandhāras and the Yaudheyas; and the Matsyapurāna (CXXI, 56) refers to a country named Kharapatha, watered by the river Nalini. It is difficult to say whether this people Khara-sāgara-rāsī, and country Kharapatha, had anything to do with the Kharaparikas.
The Kākas 3 are mentioned in the Mahābhārata (VI, 9, 64) where they are associated with the Vidarbhas who were a wellknown people occupying tracts of territory in what is now known as the Central Provinces. The territory of the Kākas is sometimes identified with Kākūpur near Bithur, while Smith suggests an identification with Kāšanāda near Sāñci.
1 I.H.Q., I, p. 258; E.P., XII, p. 46, v. 5. 2 A variant reading is 'Svarasāgararāśī'. 3 Var. reading Kāñcika. 4 Bombay Gazetteer. 5 J.R.A.S., 1897, pp. 892–9.
