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TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA
savaras are incidentally mentioned in the early Bengali Caryāpadas and evidently these were the people from whom was derived the conception of the goddess Parņa-savari in Vajrayāna-Buddhism. The Arbudas must have been the people dwelling on and
around the Arbuda mountain which is generally Arbudas identified with modern Mt. Abu which is the southern end of the Aravalli hills. The Khasas are described in one place of the Mārkandeya
Purāna (LVII, 56) as 'parvatāśrayinah' or dwelling Khasas
along the mountains, and in another place as located in the middle of the tortoise along with the Sālvas, Nīpas, Śakas, Sūrasenas, etc. (LVIII, 6). Epic tradition as contained in the Mahābhārata brands them as a rude half-civilised tribe along with the Sakas, Daradas, etc. (Sabhāparvan, LI, 1859), while the Harivamsa records the reason why they were considered as such. It says that the people were once defeated and degraded by King Sagara (XIV, 784) and were hence regarded as Mlecchas (XCV, 6440-1). Manu also says that they were originally Ksatriyas, but were later on degraded by the lapse of sacred rites and the absence of Brāhmaṇas in their midst (X, 43-4). The Sabhāparvan of the Mahābhārata places the people near the river Sailoda between the Meru and Mandāra mountains (LI, 1858-9). If the river Sailoda is the same as Sailodaka of the Matsyapurāna (CXX, 19-23), then the Khasas seem to have originally settled somewhere in Tibet or further north-west. Much later, in historical times, the Khasas are mentioned with some other tribes in the inscriptions of the Pālas and Senas of Bengal in such a way as to suggest that they enlisted themselves as mercenary troops in the army of the kings of those dynasties.
