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MISCELLANEOUS TRIBES
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dwellers on the outskirts of the hills of Bhagalpur and Monghyr regions.
The Anupas are mentioned as a tribe in the Vayupurana (XIV, 134); the Matsyapurana reads Anipa (CXIII, 54) Anupas while the Markandeya Purana (LVII, 55) reads Annajas. Anupa literally means any marshy tract or country lying not very far from the seas. In this sense the word 'sagaranupa' is used in several places in the Mahabharata. Thus we find tracts known as Anupa in Bengal1 in the far south 2 on the western coast 3 in or near about Kathiawar. From the Harivamsa we learn that the country of the Anupa tribe lay near Surastra and Anartta. The Harivamsa further informs us that it was to the south of Surăṣṭra (XCIV, 5142-80). In the Mahabharata king Kartavirya and Nala are styled 'lords of Anupa'.5 It seems likely, therefore, that the Anupas occupied the tract of country south of Surastra, around Mähismati on the Narmada. Epigraphic evidence also lends support to such a view. The Nasik Cave Inscription of Queen Gautami Balaśri records that her son conquered Anupa along with other countries, namely, Maharastra, Mulaka (country round Paithan), Suratha (Surastra or Kathiawar), Kukura (country near the Pariyātra or the Western Vindhyas), Aparanta (northern Konkan), Vidarbha (Berar) and Ākaravanti (eastern and western Malwa). Most of these tracts seem to have been reconquered from Gautamiputra by Saka Mahākṣatrapa Rudradāman whose Junagadh Rock Inscription states that his sway extended over Purv-apar-akar-avanti (east and west Malwa), Anupanivrit or the Mahiṣmati (Mandhātā?) region, Anartta (tract round Dwarka according to some; district round Vadanagara according to others), Suraṣṭra (district round Junagadh), Svabhra (the country on the banks of the Sabarmati), Maru (Marwar), Kaccha (Cutch), Sindhu-Sauvira (the lower Indus valley), Kukura (part of Central India, probably near the Pariyātra Mt. according to the Brhatsamhita, XIV, 4), Aparanta (north Konkan), and Niṣāda (in the region of the Sarasvati and the western Vindhyas)."
6
The Kukuras as a tribe find mention in the Bhagavatapurana. They seem to have occupied the Dwaraka region Kukuras which is described as: 'Kukur-Andhaka-Vrsnibhiḥ Juptaḥ'. The Vayupurana also seems to refer to the tribe when it represents Ugrasena, the king of the Vadavas as 'Kukurodbhava' or 'originated from Kukura'. The Bṛhatsamhita seems to locate the
1 Sabhaparvan, XXV, 1002; XXIX, I101; XXXIII, 1268-9.
2 Udyogaparvan, XVIII, 578.
4 Harivamsa, CXIII, 6361-9; CXIV, 6410-11.
3 Ibid., III, 81.
5 Bhismaparvan, XCV, 4210.
6 Cf. Bomb. Gaz., 1, i, 6.
7 Cf. Niṣadarāṣṭra, Mbh., III, 130-4 and Pariyatracaraḥ, Mbh., XII, 135, 3-5.
