18. Madra. 
By H. ©. Ray, M.A. 
Madra has been generally taken roughly to ela ate to 
modern Sialkot and its adjacent districts to the west of the 
Ravi in the central Punjab. But according to Ase it once 
extended from the Beas to the Chenab and even to the Jhelum. ! 
Its capital was Sakala or Sagala-nagara, modern Sialkot. In 
the general history of ancient India. Madra has played not an 
unimportant part; yet up to the present no systematic 
attempt has been made to write out a connected narrative of it 
by joining together the many scattered pieces of information. 
In writing this article my humble aim has been to try to 
present such an accoun 
In the Vedic literature Madra denotes a people and 
appears to have been divided into two sections. The southern 
Madras lived in the Punjab while the northern section—the 
They are mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana® as living 
beyond the Himalayas (parena Himavantam). According to 
some scholars the Uttara Madras had a non-monarchical cons- 
titution. They refer to a passage* in the Aitareya Brahmana 
which mentions that among the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara 
Madras the whole community (janapadah) was consecrated to 
rulership and their institution was called Vairajya. M. Haug 
i.e. people in opposition to the king mentioned as abhishikta, 
i.e. inaugurated, whilst in all other passages - this chapter, 
we find instead of them the rajanah or kings. 
He has of late been followed by Mr. eee § and Dr. R. C. 
Majumdar.’ But Dr. Raychaudhuri points out that Vairajya 
does not necessarily mean ‘ kingless t is derived from Virat, 
a designation applied to great kings, as well as to the conse- 
crated rulers of the northern Janapadas. In the Utkrosana 


{ Cun nni Bi ad Bey, Ancient Geography of India, p. 
* Altindisches Leben, p. 102. bs dic Index, Vol + pp. 84-85. 
probable ‘aa the Uttaramadra countr ry formed the "cradle land af the 
ras from bea they subsequently migrated in the Punjab, 
8 Vill, 14, 
5 M. Haug’s reins: of the Pye Brahmana, p. 
8 An Introduction to Hindu Polity, Modern pale. Vel, XIII, 1913, 
U Corporate Life in Ancient India, |st ed. p. 89. 
