Pulindas
The Pulindas (Sanskrit: पुलिंद) were an ancient tribe of India, likely resident in the environs of the Vindhya Range of Central India.[1] The Rock Edicts of Ashoka (269 BCE - 231 BCE) mention the Pulindas, their capital Pulinda-nagara, and their neighboring tribes, based on which their capital is sometimes located in present-day Jabalpur District of Madhya Pradesh state.[2] Basak identifies them with the hill tribes of the Vindhya and Satpura ranges, more specifically the Bhils.[3]
Though clearly associated with the Vindhyan region, the Pulindas are sometimes believed to have had multiple tribal branches that ranged up to the Himalayan region and Assam.[4] In the Himalayan region, ancient Indian literature often mentions them in conjunction with the Kiratas.[4]
In addition to the Pulindas of Vindhya, the Asokan inscriptions might have also labelled a South Indian people called Paladas as "Pulindas". Historian Sathianathaier has postulated that the name of Pallavas was derived from Paladas.[5]
References
- Hemchandra Raychaudhuri (1953), Political history of ancient India: from the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty, University of Calcutta, retrieved 6 May 2010,
... Pulindas who are invariably associated with the Nerbudda (Reva) and the Vindhyan region ...
- Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar (2000), Aśoka, Asian Educational Services, ISBN 81-206-1333-3, retrieved 6 May 2010,
... in Rock Edict XIII ... we have to place them somewhere to the north or the north-east of the Andhras ... In the Vayu-Purana, the southern branch of the Pulindas has been placed side by side with the Vindhya-muliyas ... their capital is mentioned as Pulinda-nagara and their kingdom as contiguous with the Chedi country ... the Jubbulpur District ...
- Radhagovinda Basak, AŚOKAN INSCRIPTIONS, Calcutta, 1959, pp. 75
- D.C. Sircar (1990), Studies in the geography of ancient and medieval India, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, ISBN 81-208-0690-5, retrieved 6 May 2010,
... The Pulindas were a hill tribe usually connected with the Vindhyan range. Partiger notices several branches of the Pulinda tribe, viz. (1) a western branch, (2) a Himalayan branch related to the Kiratas and Tanganas, and (3) a southern branch ...
- Sathianathaier, R. (1970) [first published 1954], "Dynasties of South India", in Majumdar, R. C.; Pusalkar, A. D. (eds.), The Classical Age, History and Culture of Indian People (Third ed.), Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, pp. 256–257
External links