86 S.C. Vidyablius^ua — The Vratya and Samkara theories of Caste. [Dec, 



book of the Atbarva-veda we find that the Angas and Magadhas in the 

 east and Gandhaiis, Mujvantas, ^iidras, Mahavrsas and Vahlikas in the 

 north-west were known to the Hindus. Now Anga corresponds to 

 modem Bhagalpur, Magadha to Behar, Gandhara to Peshwar, Vahlika 

 to Balkh, etc. 



The Manu-samhita, too, affords ns with a pretty long list of the 

 Vratya people. From among the Vratya Brabmanas included in the list 

 of Manu I may mention only the Avantya and Vatadhana. The A vantyas 

 were the Brabmanas of Avanti or modern Ujjain. The Vatadhana is 

 piobably the same as Vethadina or Vethadipa mentioned in the celebrat- 

 ed canonical Pali work Mahaparinibbana sutta (Chap. 6) and other 

 Buddhist works. According to the description of the Pali works it may 

 be asserted that Vethadipa was situated in the district of Shahabad. 

 Avanti or Ujjain, which was a part of Malwa, was a head-quarters of 

 Buddhism up to about 71 B.C., and the Brabmanas of Vethadipa 

 actually took a prominent part in preserving the relics of Buddha so 

 early as in the year 543 B.C. It is therefore not altogether unreasonable 

 to conjecture that the Brabmanas called Avantya and Vatadhana were 

 regarded as Vratyas on account of their being devotees to Buddha and 

 his religion. 



Vratya Ksatriyas mentioned by Manu were the Jhalla, Malla, 

 Nicchivi, Nata, Karana, Khasa, Dravida, Paundraka, Audra, Kamboja, 

 Yavana, (^aka, Parada, Pahlava, Cina, Kirata and Darada. 



Of these the tribes called Jlialla, Nata, Karana and Khasa still exist in 

 various districts of Northern India occupying social positions inferior to 

 those of the Rajaputs. The Mallas were a Buddhist people that lived 

 in Pava and Kusinara in the district of Goruckpore. The Nicchivis 

 (Licchavis) were also Buddhists. They lived in Vai9ali corresponding to 

 modern Basarh in the district of Muzaffurpore, and were very powe^rfal 

 in the 5th century B.C. The Dravidas were the Dravidians of Southern 

 India. Paundrakas were the people of Pundravardhana corresponding 

 to modern Dinajpur and Maldah in Northern Bengal. Audras were the 

 people of Orissa. The Kambojas were the people that inhabited the 

 Hindu Kush mountain which separates the Giljit valley from Balkh. 

 The Yavanas were the Bactrian Greeks, and the S'akas were the same 

 as the people of Sakai in Central Asia. Parada and Pahlava were 

 also two foreign tribes. Cinas wore the people of China and the Daradas 

 of Dardistan in the north-western frontier of Kashmir. The Kiratas 

 were a flat-faced people that were very numerous in Sikkim, East Nepal 

 and Tibet. The tribe called Karusa mentioned in the Vianupurana has 

 been described as Vratya-vaiQya in the MaMU-sariihita. 



From tlie above it is evident that people of Persia, Balkh, Sakai, 



