Bharatas- The Bharatas are a major Aryan clan, especially in Mandala 3 attributed to the Bharata sage Vishvamitra. The entire Bharata clan is described as crossing over, with their chariots and wagons, at the confluence of the Vipash (Beas River) and Shutudri (Satlej). The Bharatas are mentioned as the protagonists in the Battle of the Ten Kings in Mandala 7 (7.18 etc.), where they are on the winning side. They appear to have been successful in the early power-struggles between the various Aryan and non-Aryan clans so that they continue to dominate in post-Rigvedic texts, and later in the (Epic) tradition. "Bhārata" today is the official name of the Republic of India (see also Etymology of India).
Yadu: Of Indo-Aryan origin,Yadu is one of the five early Rigvedic tribes (panchajana, panchakrishtya or panchamanusha) mentioned in the Rigveda.[4][5][6] The Yadus had a tribal union with the Turvasha tribe, and were frequently described together.[7][8][page needed] The Yadus were a Aryan tribe.[6] By the time of the arrival of the Puru and Bharata tribes, the Yadu-Turvashas were settled in Punjab, with the Yadus possibly residing along the Yamuna River.[9]In Mandalas 4 and 5 of the Rigveda, the god Indra is stated to have saved the Yadu-Turvashas from drowning when they crossed rivers.[10][11] In Mandala 6, the Yadu-Turvashas are stated to have been "brought from far away" by Indra.[12][13] The Yadu-Turvashas are treated relatively positively in Mandalas 5, 6, and 8,[14] and are stated to be the occasional allies and enemies of the Puru-Bharatas.[10] In the Battle of the Ten Kings, the Yadus were defeated by Bharata chieftain Sudas.[15]
Pancha Jana (Five tribes)
(पञ्च जना – Páñca Jánāḥ / Pancha-janah) The pancha Jana are five tribes inexplicitly listed together during the (Āryāvarta of this time, c. 1700–1500 BCE, roughly corresponds with the Punjab and closer regions) (see the map of Early Vedic Period)
Puru (ancestors of the Paurava) (in the centre and east parts of early Āryāvarta, including Sarasvati river region)
Turvaśa (Turvasha) (in the centre and south parts of early Āryāvarta): The Turvashas (Sanskrit: तुर्वश, Turvaśa) were one of the five major peoples[5] (panchajana, panchakrishtya or panchamanusha) mentioned in the Rigveda. [16] The Turvashas had a tribal union with the Yadu tribe, and were frequently described together.[7][17] The Turvashas were a partly Indo-Aryan-acculturated Indus tribe.[6] By the time of the arrival of the Puru and Bharata tribes, the Yadu-Turvashas were settled in Punjab.[18] By the time of the Shatapatha Brahmana (7th-6th centuries BCE),[19][20] the Turvashas are linked to the Panchalas.[18] Alfred Ludvig first conjectured that Turvīti and Vayya could have been connected with the Turvasha tribe, a notion that is still considered only speculation according to Witzel.[21][22] In Mandalas 4 and 5 of the Rigveda, the god Indra is stated to have saved the Yadu-Turvashas from drowning when they crossed rivers.[10][11] In Mandala 6, the Yadu-Turvashas are stated to have been "brought from far away" by Indra.[12][13] The Yadu-Turvashas are treated relatively positively in Mandalas 5, 6, and 8,[14] and are stated to be the occasional allies and enemies of the Puru-Bharatas.[10]
Yadu (in the southeast and south parts of early Āryāvarta)
Janapadas
Early Janapadas (c. 1700–1100 BCE)
Map 6: Early Vedic Culture (1700–1100 BCE) and location of early Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes
After roughly 1700 BCE Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes were swiftly expanding through ancient northern India, therefore the number of peoples, tribes and clans was increasing (as well as the number of Indo-Aryan language speakers) and Āryāvarta was becoming a very large area (see the map on the right side).
Ambaśṭha – (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Aṅga – Prachya Āryāvarta – Eastern Āryāvarta (Madhya-desha and Prachya Āryāvarta – Central and Eastern Āryāvarta in Vamana).
Anu – is a Vedic Sanskrit term for one of the 5 major tribes in the Rigveda, RV 1.108.8, RV 8.10.5 (both times listed together with the Druhyu) and, much later also in the Mahabharata.[23] In the late Vedic period, one of the Anu kings, King Anga, is mentioned as a "chakravartin" (AB 8.22). Ānava, the vrddhi derivation of Anu, is the name of a ruler in the Rigvedic account of the Battle of the Ten Kings (7.18.13) and at 8.4.1 with the Turvaśa (tribe). The meaning ánu "living, human" (Naighantu) cannot be substantiated for the Rigveda[24] and may have been derived from the tribal name. (Pratichya Āryāvarta – Western Āryāvarta)
Āyu[25]
Bhajeratha[26]
Bhalana – The Bhalanas were one of the tribes that fought against Sudas in the Dasarajna battle. Some scholars have argued that the Bhalanas lived in South Central and Western Pakistan, and that the Bolan Pass, around which live the Brahui people, are the Bhalana people and abode.[23][27] (Pratichya Āryāvarta – Western Āryāvarta)
Bharadvāja – (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Bheda – (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Bodha – (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Druhyu – The Druhyu were a people of Vedic India. They are mentioned in the Rigveda,[a] usually together with the Anu tribe.[29] Some early scholars have placed them in the northwestern region.[30] The later texts, the Epic and the Puranas, locate them in the "north", that is, in Gandhara, Aratta and Setu. (Vishnu Purana IV.17) The Druhyus were driven out of the land of the seven rivers, and their next king, Gandhara, settled in a north-western region which became known as Gandhāra. The sons of the later Druhyu king Pracetas too settle in the "northern" (udīcya) region (Bhagavata 9.23.15–16; Visnu 4.17.5; Vayu 99.11–12; Brahmanda 3.74.11–12 and Matsya 48.9.). The word Druid (Gallic Celtic druides), is partially derived from Proto-Indo-European vid "to see, to know'[31][32] It has also been alleged that the Rg Veda and the Puranas describe this tribe as migrating North.[33] However, there is nothing of this in the Rigveda and the Puranas merely mention that the Druhyu are "adjacent (āśrita) to the North". (Pratichya Āryāvarta – Western Āryāvarta)
Gandharis[34] (Pratichya Āryāvarta – Western Āryāvarta)
Pūru (Puru) (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Bharatas – The Bharatas are an Aryan tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, especially in Mandala 3 attributed to the Bharata sage Vishvamitra and in and Mandala 7.[43]Bharatá is also used as a name of Agni (literally, "to be maintained", viz. the fire having to be kept alive by the care of men), and as a name of Rudra in RV 2.36.8. In one of the "river hymns" RV 3.33, the entire Bharata tribe is described as crossing over, with their chariots and wagons, at the confluence of the Vipash (Beas) and Shutudri (Satlej). Hymns by Vasistha in Mandala 7 (7.18 etc.) mention the Bharatas as the protagonists in the Battle of the Ten Kings, where they are on the winning side. They appear to have been successful in the early power-struggles between the various Aryan and non-Aryan tribes so that they continue to dominate in post-Rigvedic texts, and later in the (Epic) tradition, the Mahābhārata, the eponymous ancestor becomes Emperor Bharata, conqueror of 'all of India', and his tribe and kingdom is called Bhārata. "Bhārata" today is the official name of the Republic of India (see also Etymology of India). (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Kuru[43] – Ancestors of the Kaurava (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Tṛtsu (Tritsu) The Tritsus are a sub-group of the Puru who are distinct from the Bharatas mentioned in Mandala 7 of the Rigveda (in hymns 18, 33 and 83). Under king Sudas they defeated the confederation of ten kings led by the Bharatas at the Battle of the Ten Kings. (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Ruśama (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Śālva(Shalva) (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Yakṣu(Yakshu) (Madhya-desha Āryāvarta – Central Āryāvarta)
Late Janapadas (c. 1100–500 BCE)
Map 7: Late Vedic era map showing the boundaries of Āryāvarta with Janapadas in northern India. Beginning of Iron Age kingdoms in India— Kuru, Panchala, Kosala, Videha.
From roughly 1100 to 500 BCE Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes expanded even further throughout ancient northern India (see the map 6).
महाजनपद – Mahajanapada
Shodasa Mahajanapadas (Sixteen Mahajanapadas)
The Mahajanapadas were sixteen great kingdoms and republics that emerged after the more powerful political entities (initially based on the territories of peoples and tribes) had conquered many others.
According to the Anguttara Nikaya, Digha Nikaya, Chulla-Niddesa (Buddhist Canon)
Oxydracae (Oxydrakaí) (may have been the Śudra (Shudra / Sudra) / Suhya (Brahmanda), not to be confused with the Shudra, a Varna)
Sattagydans – people that dwelt in Sattagydia (Old Persian Thataguš; th = θ, from θata – "hundred" and guš – "cows", country of the People of "Hundred Cows"), may have been an Indo-Aryan people of Sindh with Iranian influence or the opposite, an Iranian people of Sindh with Indo-Aryan influence.
Sibae / Sobii (Sibaí / Sivaí / Sobioí / Sivioí) (may have been the Śiva or Shiva people of Early Janapadas?) (not to be confused with the God Śiva or Shiva)
Alina (RV 7.18.7) (RV = Rigveda) – They were one of the tribes defeated by Sudas of the Bharatas at the Dasarajna (Ten Kings Battle).[47] It is suggested that they lived to the north-east of the Kambojas (possible ancestors of the Nuristani that live in Nurestan) because in the 7th century CE, the land was mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang.[47] It is possible that they are connected with the Alans or Alani people who are a nomadic Iranian tribe. Alans is a dialectal cognate of Aryāna, itself derived from the root arya-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples. It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. The historian S. G. Talageri identifies them with the Greeks (Hellenes).[48] However, the dating of the Rigveda and the hypothetical historic time for the Dasarajna (Battle of Ten Kings) occurred millennia before Hellenes were recorded in India.
Parsu (Parśu) – The Parsus have been connected with the Persians based on the evidence of an Assyrian inscription from 844 BC referring to the Persians as Parshu, and the Behistun Inscription of Darius I of Persia referring to Parsa as the home of the Persians. Pârsâ, is the Old Persian name for the Persis region Pars province as well as the root for the term Persian.
Shakya – a clan of Iron Age India (1st millennium BCE), habitating an area in Greater Magadha, on the foothills of the Himalaya mountains. This is also the clan in which Siddhartha Gautama (also known as Buddha or Shakyamuni – Sage of the Shakyas) (c. 6th to 4th centuries BCE) was born into, whose teachings became the foundation of Buddhism. According to Chandra Das, the name "Shakya" is derived from the Sanskrit word "śakya," which means "the one who is capable". Some scholars argue that the Shakya were of Scythian (Saka) origin (part of the Iranian peoples) and assimilated into Indo-Aryan peoples.[49][50]
Hypothetical Indo-Aryans
Mitanni Indo Aryans (c. 1500–1300 BCE) – hypothetical ancient people of the northern Middle East in the Mitanni kingdom (part of today's far western Iran, northwestern Iraq, northern Syria and southeastern Turkey), that spoke the hypothetical Mitanni Indo-Aryan (a language that was superstrate of Hurrian, a non-Indo-European language) and merged with the Hurrians, many of them as a social elite, in the course of the Indo-Aryan migration (towards West in this case).
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Further reading
Pargiter, F. E. [1922] 1979. Ancient Indian Historical Tradition. New Delhi: Cosmo.
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