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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
386
In
days of Aśoka. The country or janapada of 'Amita-Tosala' is referred to in the Gauḍavyaha along with its city Tosala.1 Pauranic literature, Tosala is always associated with Dakṣina Kośala and distinguished from Kalinga. Tosala in medieval times seems to have been divided into two parts: Dakṣina Tosala and Uttara Tosala. The city of Tosala seems to have been the same as Tosalei of Ptolemy.
The Vaidiśas are undoubtedly the people of Vidiśa, a famous city of early times, the capital of the Daśārņa country, Vaidisas immortalised by Kalidasa in his Meghadutam. Vidiśā is probably the modern Besnagar, close to Bhilsa. It was situated on the river Vetravati, modern Betwa.
The name Tuştikāras seems to be a misreading. The Vayupurana reads Tundikeras (XLV, 134) which is supported by Tuştikāras the Mahabharata and the Harivamsa (XXXIV, 1895). According to the Harivamsa they belonged to the Haihaya race (ibid.). The tribe seems to have left their trace in the little town of Tendukhera, a little to the north of the source of the Narmada.* Saundikeras, which is the reading of the Matsyapurana, is incorrect.
The Mahiṣakas or Mahiṣikas are referred to in the Purānas 5 as a people of the south. They are mentioned in the
The Mähişakas
7
same context in the Sabhaparvan list of the or Mähiṣikas Mahabharata. Undoubtedly they are the same people as the Mahismakas of the Asvamedhaparvan of the Mahabharata, and were the inhabitants of the ancient region Mähismati mentioned also in the Mahabharata. Mähismati seems to have been situated on the river Narmada between the Vindhya and the Rikṣa and can safely be identified with the modern Mandhātā region, where there was a river called Mahişiki mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa." According to one passage in the Harivamsa,10 the founder of Mähismati seems to have been Mucukunda, according to another 11 Mähismat. According to the Puranas, 12 Mahiṣmati was founded by a prince of the Yadu lineage. Bhandarkar says that Avanti Dakṣiņāpatha had its capital at Mähiṣmati or Pali Mähissati. The Puranas style the first dynasty of Mahiṣmati as Haihaya,13 whereas the Mahagovinda
1 Cf. Levi, Pre-Aryan et Pre-Dravidian L'Inde, J.A., July-Sept., 1923. 2 Ep. Ind., IX, 286; XV, 3.
3 Dronaparvan, XVII, 691; Karnaparvan, V, 138.
4 Pargiter, Märkandeya Purana, p. 344, note.
5 Märkandeya Purana, LVII, 46; Matsyapurana, CXIII, 47.
6 IX, 366.
8 Sabhaparvan, XXX, 1125-63.
10 XCV, 5218ff.
7 LXXXIII, 2475.
9 Kişkindhya Kända, XLI, 16. 11 XXXIII, 1846-7.
12 Matsyapurana, XLIII, 10-29; XLIV, 36; Vayupurana, 94, 26; 95, 35. 13 Ibid., 43, 8-29; Vayu, 94, 5-26.
25B
