852 Historical Geography of Hindustan, ^c. [No. 104. 



His name continued to distinguish a numerous tribe of the former, previ- 

 ous to the comparatively modern divisions of five Gaurs and five Dravers ; 

 or the yet more recent distinctions that obtain among them in different 

 provinces of India. This general idea of their northern origin, which pre- 

 vails among the better informed of the Brahminical sect, would appear in 

 all respects worthy of belief; since there is evidence of such an event to 

 be found in the traces of people belonging to the Hindu stock, migrating 

 to the south. These are manifest in the names of countries enumerated 

 by Sanscrit geographical works, that were originally affixed to stations 

 north and south of the Himala mountains, and became applicable, in the 

 course of time, to places in the south of India. Such was evidently the 

 course by which the northern countries of Madra and Pandiya* transferred 

 their names to the provinces of Madura and Marwar, on the Coromandel 

 Coast; and by which Virata, f a part of the kingdom of Trigerta, or Lahore, 

 came to be considered one of the seven Konkanas situated in the south. 



It is unnecessary to inquire whether they, who carried these names 

 southward, were of the purely Brahminical or Buddhaist faith ; for it may 

 be truly asserted, that both religions in their origin were connected, and 

 that the greater antiquity is in favour of the Brahmans, or the orthodox 

 followers of the Vedas. Such would appear to be the import of the pas- 

 sage, quoted from the institutes of Menu by Sir William Jones, that, 

 " Many families of the military class having gradually abandoned the 

 " ordinances of the Vedas, and the company of the Brahmans, lived in a 

 ''state of degradation; as the people of Paudraca and Odra, those of 

 " Dravira and Camboja, the Yavanas and Sacas, the Paradas andPahlavas, 

 "the Chinas, and some other nations." From this we learn, that a great 

 revolution, both in religion and in government, was effected about this 

 time ; and that these nations conforming no longer to the Sabean idolatry, 

 which had been common to the east, adopted an altered system of religious 



* The southern provinces of Madra or Madru and Pandiya are particularly men- 

 tioned in a grant of land (A. R. vol. ix. p. 428,) made during the time of Bokshamalla 

 Raja, by the minister ^afia^a^a, a descendant from Kasyapa. In the Hindu geogra- 

 phical work, called the Skapte Samhheda, and quoted by Mr. Ward (vol. iv. p. 

 456,) they are placed more to the north, and were originally the same as the Pundda 

 Regia of the ancients, now identified with Sogdiana, or the valley of Samarkand. 

 The date of the grant is Salivahana eera 1095, a. d. 1173. 



t Some account of Virata, as one of the Konkans, will be found in Mr. Wilson*s 

 account of the Mackenzie Collection (p. xcix,) and in Grant Duff's enumeration of 

 the same, (Hist, of the Marahtas, vol. i. p. 4) ; it appears under the corrupted name of 

 Marwar, extending from Bancote to Bassein, inclusive of Bombay. The Marahta 

 traditions relate that Virat Rat, who was the Rajah of Wai, near Satara, accompanied 

 the Pandus to the battle of Kuruket; which though doubtful as a fact, evinces that he 

 received his title from the country of Virata, a political division of India, that was 

 originally more to the north than Wai. 



