Kingdoms From the Rigvedic Period To the Mahājanapada Period

 

Kingdoms From the Rigvedic Period To the Mahājanapada Period

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

I saw an interesting map of the Mahājanapadas (and janapadas) on the internet:

This is interesting in the context of the transition of kingdoms from the Rigvedic period (3500-1500 BCE) to the period of the Mahājanapadas (before and around the time of the Buddha, 600 BCE). As per google:

“Mahajanapadas were sixteen powerful kingdoms and republics that emerged in ancient India around the 6th century BCE, marking a transition from tribal societies to organized states, and playing a crucial role in shaping the political, economic, and cultural landscape of the region.”

“The Mahājanapadas were sixteen kingdoms and aristocratic republics that existed in Ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE, during second urbanisation. Mahajanapadas. c. 600 BCE – c. 345 BCE.”

“The 16 Mahajanapadas were Magadha, Anga, Kashi, Kosala, Avanti, Vatsa, Gandhara, Kamboja, Chedi, Vajji, Malla, Kuru, Panchala, Matsya, Surasena, and Asmaka (Assaka). The Mahajanapadas were known for their rich cultural heritage, military prowess, and economic prosperity.”

 

It will be seen on the map that two of the Mahājanapadas (Gandhara and Kamboja) are in the NW beyond the Punjab. One (Aśmaka) is distinctly to the south: around Telangana.

The other thirteen more or less form a cluster stretching from Madhya Pradesh in the south to Bihar in the east to Haryana in the west.

This is interesting because, while the Puranas give us detailed lists of kingdoms from the earliest times, these two eras (the Rigvedic era and the Mahājanapada era) give us concrete layouts of the state of kingdoms during those two pre-Mauryan periods.

In the Rigveda, we have the kingdom of the Bharatas centered around the Sarasvati river in Haryana. The Rigveda is basically a Book of the Pūrus, and more specifically (and, especially more so in the period of the Family Books 2-7) the Book of the Bharata subtribe of the Pūrus, whose most illustrious kings named in the Rigveda are Devavāta, Sṛñjaya, Divodāsa, Sudās, Sahadeva and Somaka.

To their west, in the areas of the Punjab and further north are the kingdoms of the Anus. The Druhyus, another western conglomerate of tribes, are already fading out of the picture in the Rigvedic period since most of them had already migrated out northwestwards and westwards through Central Asia in an earlier period, leaving only some remnants in the Anu areas. To the south of the Bharata Pūrus (the Rigvedic “Aryans”) are the tribes of the Yadus, and to their east are the related tribes of the Turvasus. Other Pūrus (other than the Bharata Pūrus) are to the east and southeast of the Bharata Pūrus. Far to the east, in northeastern U.P. and Bihar, we know from the testimony of the Epics and Puranas, are the Eastern Peoples, known to post-Rigvedic tradition as the Ikṣvākus (from Ikṣvāku=”sun”, indicating their eastern provenance, in the direction of the Rising Sun). While these Eastern Peoples themselves are not in regular contact with the Bharata Pūrus in the Rigvedic period, one branch among them, known to the Rigveda as the Tṛkṣis, who had migrated westwards from the east into the northwest in an earlier period, are familiar to the Bharata Pūrus.

 

A comparison of the Rigvedic kingdoms or tribal domains (if that term is preferred by some) with the Mahājanapadas and the other janapadas of the Buddha period (sixth century BCE) gives us the following interesting picture:

The Anus (and remnant Druhyus): In the Rigvedic period, these dominated in the Punjab area. While most of the major Anu subtribes (ancestral speakers of the Iranian, Armenian, Greek and Albanian branches of IE languages) migrated westwards and out of India after the dāśarājña battle, Anus were still dominantly present in these areas: the two primary Anu janapadas in the area were the Madra and Kekaya. But, by this time, they were surpassed in importance by the two other Anu Mahājanapadas to their northwest: Gandhara and Kamboja.

The Pūrus: The Pūrus, being the actual Vedic “aryans”, are the most continuously recorded tribal conglomerate:

The Bharata Pūrus of the Old Rigveda were already replaced in their ancestral area (Haryana) by another group of Pūrus by the end of the Rigvedic era itself: the Kurus.

The descendants of the Bharata Pūrus of the Old Rigveda seem to have shifted eastwards already by the end of the Rigvedic era itself, and were known as the Pañcālas.

A third important group of Pūrus − in retrospect perhaps the historically most important group since it shows the greatest historical and geographical continuity from the period of the Old Rigveda to the period of the Mahājanapadas – is the subtribe of the Matsyas. They were present among the enemies of Sudās in the dāśarājña battle (somewhere in the early or mid third millennium BCE): Rigveda VII.18.6; they were present during the period of the Mahabharata (somewhere in the mid second millennium BCE) where the Matsya king Virāṭa unknowingly provides shelter to the Pāṇḍavas during their thirteenth year of incognito exile; and they are present as one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas (somewhere in the mid first millennium BCE). In all these periods, the records locate them in the same area: to the south of Haryana (the land of the Bharata Pūrus and the Kurus) and the west of the Yamuna. 

By the time of the Mahājanapadas, other Pūru subtribes had expanded or spread out far to the east and established Mahājanapadas and janapadas stretching out till Bihar: of the sixteen great Mahājanapadas, besides the Kuru, Pañcāla and Matsya Mahājanapadas, there are three more: Vatsa, Kāśī and Magadha, and also Cedi (which was originally a Yadu kingdom, but was replaced later by a Pūru kingdom).

A look at the map of the Mahājanapadas shown above clearly shows the expansion of the Pūrus that had taken place eastwards between the end of the Rigvedic period and the period of the Mahājanapadas.        

 

The Yadus and Turvasus: The Yadus (referred to punnily as Yakṣu in the Rigveda) and the Turvasus (about whom, little is known except as adjuncts of the Yadus) also figure as enemies in the eastern battles of Sudās in the Old Rigveda, and are associated with the Yamunā: VII.18.6,19;  19.8.

Appropriately, apart from the fact that all of historical tradition associates the Yadus with areas on and to the south of the Yamunā, the Śurasena Mahājanapada, to the east of the Matsya Mahājanapada (see map above), is a Yadu kingdom, as is the Avantī Mahājanapada further south. And, as pointed out above, the adjoining Cedi Mahājanapada was also originally a Yadu kingdom, replaced later by a Pūru kingdom.

The Aṅga Mahājanapada, in the extreme east, as per tradition was originally a Turvasu kingdom. But, if the Mahabharata story about Karṇa being made the king of Aṅga has any substance, this may be another example of a kingdom which became a Pūru kingdom.

 

The Ikṣvākus: Fully in keeping with all traditional textual testimony, the three Ikṣvāku Mahājanapadas on the above map (Malla, Kosala, Vṛji/Vajji/Licchavi) are all found lined up in northeastern U.P and Bihar, to the north of the other Mahājanapadas.