Information AboutMadra |
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Madra or '''Madraka''' is the name of an ancient region and its inhabitants, located in the north-west division of ancient India n Sub-continent . Aitareya Brahmana makes first reference to the Madras as Uttaramadras i.e northern Madras and locates them in the trans- Himalaya n region as neighbors to the Uttara Kurus . The Uttara Madras, like the Uttara Kurus , are stated to follow the Republican constitution. The Uttara Madra country of Aitareya Brahmana is often identified with Bahlika ( Bactria ). As the name '' Uttaramadra '' itself shows, there was some other Madra group also, which was obviously living to the south of the Uttara Madras. The post- Vedic , pre- Buddhist Brahmanical literature is overflowing with the names of Tribe s. The most powerful among them, commanding the greatest respect, in the Madhyadesha (Middle country) was the Kuru-Panchala which incorporated the two families of Kuru and Puru (and the earlier Bharata s) and of which the Panchalas was a confederation of lesser-known tribes. They occupied the Upper Doab and the Kurukshetra region. In the Prachya or east, the Clan s of Kasi , Kosala and Magadha predominated. In the north-west or Uttarapatha division, the Kamboja , Gandhara , and the Madra clans were the most important. Panini documents the Madra Janapada as a part of modern Punjab country with Capital at Sakala or Sagala , modern Sialkot . Panini mentions two divisions of the Madras in Panjab or Vahika country i.e. the Purva (''Eastern'') Madras and the Apara (''Western'') Madras. The Purva- Madra extended from the Ravi to Chenab and the Apara-Madra from Chenab to the Jhelum . Thus, it appears probable that the Madras of Panjab had cultural interaction with Bahlika (Bactria) country, the land of the Uttara Madras. Some verses in the Mahabharata allude to this connection of the Madras with the Uttara Madras. In the Mahabharata , Sakala is mentioned as chief city of the Vahika, said to be located on the Apaga river. King Salya had taken part in the Mahabharata war, on behalf of the Kauravas. Madri, the mother of Pandava-putras Nakula and Sehdeva, was a Madra Princess . Madri has also been referred to as Bahliki i.e princess of Bahlika janapada/tribe and king Salya has been referred to as Bahlika-pungava i.e foremost among the Bahlikas. These references obviously connect the Vahika Madras to Bahlika i.e Bactria Madras i.e the Vedic Uttara-Madras, which is known to have been the earliest settlement of the Madra people. In Karnaparva of Mahabharata, Karna specifically directs his wrath against Shalya who was from Madra, and ridicules the region he was from. Karna calls the Madra men and women as "dirt"."....The caste observances were so slack in the frontiers that the Brahmanical literature began to look upon the Madra, Gandhara and Kamboja peoples as loose-lived and barbaric. As compared to the rigid four-class social system of Madhyadesa, these tribes of the frontiers followed two social classes and further there was permissible vertical mobility.... The women were treated equal to men and there was no taboo of social mixing among the two sexes. Both sexes ate meat, drank strong liquor and there would be mixed public dancing in a state of undress. Such way of life was positively obscene to the eastern Brahmin eyes. The custom of bride price among the Madras (instead of dowry) appeared degrading to the easterners. Nevertheless, the beauty, the loving nature and utter fidelity of the women of the north-west including Madra, Bahlika remained proverbial (e.g: ''Immortal Love Legend of Savitri & Satyavan. Savitri was the daughter of Asvapati, king of Madra tribe''). A warrior's widow in these regions would even immolate herself with her husband's corpse. The horrifying custom of Sati was completely unknown in the east untill as late as 6th century AD.........Compared to the above feeling of the easterners towards the westerners, there are, unfortunately, no surviving records which tell us as to just what the westeners thought of the snobishly exclusive and yet rather countrified accolytes of the east; but it is known that the more enterprising low-caste youths from the east could travel to the west, acquire the brahmin's bag of tricks and ultimately pass themselves off as brahmins. No attention was paid by their learned frontier teachers to caste limits upon occupation.." (The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline, p 119, D. D. Kosambi). Obviously, it were such Brahmins who had later passed judgements as above on the non-puritanic way of lives of the frontier westerners. The Puranic accounts state that the Madras, Usinara s and Kekaya s were the direct descendants of ''Anu'', the grand son of ''Yayati'' See: Bhagvatam Purana, 23.1-4.. {Link without Title} . ''Vamsa Brahamana'' See: Vamsa Brahmana verse 1.18-19 of the Sama Veda refers to one Rsi ''Madragara Shaungayani'' as the teacher of Aupamanyava Kamboja . As the name itself suggests, and as the scholars have rightly stated, Rsi Madragara Shaungayani belonged to Madra tribe Dr Zimmer, Dr Keith & Macdonnel, Dr B. C. Law, Dr M. R. Singh etc. Dr Keith and Dr Macdonnel, the authors of Vedic Index, as also Dr H Zimmer, Dr B. C. Law etc postulate a possible connection between the Madras i.e. the Uttaramadras and the ''Trans-Hindukush'' Kambojas . Since both these people were a close neighbors in the north-western part of ancient India, such connections were but natural (Dr B. C. Law). Jean Przylusky has shown that Bahlika ( Balkh ) was a settlement of the Madras who were known as ''Bahlika-Uttaramadras''Vedic Index, I, p 84-85, 138; India as Known to Panini, 1953, p 50, Dr Aggarwal; Some Kshatriya Tribes, p 232, Dr B. C. Law; Indian as Known to Panini, p 50; Geographical Data in Early Puranas, pp 65, 164, Dr M. R. Singh; The Udumbras, Journal Asiatique, 1926, p 11, Jean Przylusky, showing that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras. In his ''Harsha-Carita'', Sanskrit scholar Bana Bhatta, the court poet of king Harsha Vardhana of Thanesar makes reference to the horses from Kamboja. And the Commentator on Harsha-Carita in his commentary reveals to us that KAMBOJAH BAHLIKA DESAJAH, i.e the Kambojas belonged to/originated from Bahlika-desa Quoted by Dr H. W. Bailey in Ancient Kamboja, Iran and Islam, 1971, p 66. This ancient evidence indicates that Bahlika (Bactria) (the land of Madras i.e the Uttaramadras) or its eastern parts formed parts of ancient Kamboja , and that both these people were a close neighbors and possibly of an allied stock. Atharvaveda-Parisita also juxtaposes the Kambojas with the Bahlikas (Madras) (i.e. Kamboja-Bahlika...).Athavaveda-Par, 57.2.5; cf Persica-9, 1980, p 106, Dr Michael Witzel; See also: {Link without Title} . Aitareya Brahmana refers to the nations of north-west and mentions the Uttaramadras and Uttarakurus as the tribes following a ''vairajiya'' (kingless) constitution. The same text also tells us that these nations lay beyond the Himalaya (i.e ''Parena himavantam'') Aitareya Brahmana VIII.14. It is to be remembered that the list of the north-western nations referred to in the Aitreya Brahmana is not an exhaustive list but illustrative only since it does not mention other nations of Trans-Himalayans like the Kambojas etc who were also known to have followed kingless (republican) constitution (Dr K. P. Jayswal, Dr J. L. Kamboj etc). The forgoing disscussion suggests that in the remote antiquity ( Vedic Age ), a settlement of the Madras was located in Bahlika (Bactria)--the western parts of the Oxus country. These Madras were, in fact, the Uttaramadras of the Aitareya Brahmana (VIII/14) In accordance with the views of Dr J. Przyluski, Dr A. B. Keith, Dr I. A. Macdonnel, Dr V. S. Aggarwal, Dr M.R. Singh, Dr J. L. Kamboj. However, in 4th c BC, this Bahlika/Bactria came under Yavana / Greek political control and thus the land started to be referenced as ''Bahlika-Yavana'' in some of ancient Sanskrit texts. Many scholars also identify the -śś-, while the rest of Iranian has -sp- (''aspa'') and Vedic has -śv- (''Aśva''). This feature and others (cf. further grammatical features in Witzel 1989, Ch 10) may point to an ultimately ''north-eastern'' (Bactria?) rather than north-western (Uratu/Median) origin of the Old Persian and thus to a ''track of immigration from the North-east via Media to the Persis'', somewhat like Nichols' (1997-98) 'southern trajectory'. A North-eastern origin would be close to the location of the Vedic Parśu. If the Madras were Medes as some modern scholars have suggested, then the Parśus may have been an off-shoot from the Bahlika-Kambojas or vice-versa. Seeing close connections of the Kambojas ( Parama-Kambojas ), the Madras (Bahlika-Madras or Uttaramadras ) and the Kurus ( Uttarakurus ) which tribes were all located in/around Oxus in Central Asia in remote antiquity, it can be thought that The Kurus , the Kambojas and the Parśus were a related people. This may also prove as to why the great kings of Achaemenid Parśu dynasty have used names like Kurush (Greek Cyrus ) and '''Kambujiya''' or perhaps '''Kambaujiya''' (Greek Cambyses ) as their '''personal''' names. (See Kamboja and Kambojas ).. REFERENCES SEE ALSO |
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