1902.J S. C. Vidyabhusana —Vrtttya and Satnkara Theories of Caste. 155 
of the original home of the Maga Brahmans. In the Bhisma-parva, 
Chapter XI, we find that in Qaka-dvipa the Brahmans lived in the 
province of Mriga (Mrga), Ksatriyas in Masaka, Valyas in Manasa, 
and the pudras j n Mandaga. Mriga mentioned in the Mahabharata 
is undoubtedly a Sanskrit name for Margiane mentioned by Greek 
writers. Pliny says (lib. vi c. xvi) that Margiane was noted for its 
sunny skies and vines grew there in abundance. It lay confronting a 
tract of country in Parthia, in which Alexander had built Alexandria. 
The ancient city of Margiane * is represented by modern Mery. 
Saka-dvipi Ksatriya. 
The province called Matiaka of f aka-dvipa, described in the Maha¬ 
bharata as inhabited by Ksatriyas, was no doubt the same as Maisoka (in 
Byrkania) mentioned by Ptolemy.f 
The Ksatriyas of Masaka (in (Jaka-dvipa) referred probably to the 
Massagetai that lived in Margiana, Sogdiana and Sakai, etc. The 
Massagetai are mentioned by Herodotus (lib. i, c. cciv.), who says that 
they inhabited a great portion of the vast plain that extended eastward 
from the Kaspian. He then relates how Cyrus lost his life in a bloody 
fight against them and their queen Tomyris. Alexander came into 
collision with their wandering hordes during the campaign of Sogdiana 
as Arrian relates (Anab. lib. iv cc. xvi, xvii). 
Antiquity of S'aka-dvipa. 
It should also be noted here that Marakand (ifTaRVl), now called 
Samarakand, which was the metropolis of Sogdiana (f aka-dvipa), was 
jzjtt i 
g a if 
«5ihrR?WFHg?fiT: « 
i as n 
(flvwrccr, «rcmr:) 11 
* McCrindle's Ptolemy, p. 264. 
f Arrian in his Indika (second century A.D.) observes :— 
“In the dominions of the Assakenoi there is a great city called Massaka (pro¬ 
bably the same as Maisoka, Masaka, or Massoi), the seat of the sovereign power 
which controls the whole realm ” (McCrindle, p. 180). 
J. i. 21 
