https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=List_of_the_Mahabharata_tribes 2026-09-07T02:02:57Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.43.6 https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_the_Mahabharata_tribes&diff=215355&oldid=prev 2021-06-17T21:54:26Z

<p>italicized title portion, italics</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{DISPLAYTITLE:List of the &#039;&#039;Mahabharata&#039;&#039; tribes}}<br /> The Sanskrit epic &#039;&#039;[[Mahabharata]]&#039;&#039; contains several enumeration of tribes or clans.<br /> <br /> The earliest terms used &quot;clan&quot; or &quot;tribe&quot; in [[Vedic Sanskrit]] were &#039;&#039;[[Janapada|jana]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;vis&#039;&#039;. [[Heinrich Zimmer]] regarded the word &#039;&#039;vis&#039;&#039; to denote a social structure identical with the English &quot;tribe&quot;, and different from a &#039;&#039;[[grama (government)|grama]]&#039;&#039; which, he considered, represented a &quot;clan&quot;—midway between &quot;family&quot; (&#039;&#039;kula&#039;&#039;) and tribe. AC Das believed, on the other hand, that: an aggregation of Vedic families formed a &#039;&#039;[[gotra]]&#039;&#039;; a group of &#039;&#039;gotras&#039;&#039; constituted a &#039;&#039;[[gosthi]]&#039;&#039;; and a group of &#039;&#039;gosthis&#039;&#039; became a &#039;&#039;grama&#039;&#039;. <br /> A &#039;&#039;vis&#039;&#039; comprised a number of these &#039;&#039;gramas&#039;&#039; and denotes a territorial &quot;district&quot;. In Das&#039; opinion, &#039;&#039;jana&#039;&#039; more properly designates a tribe, which was an association of neighbouring districts.<br /> <br /> Broadly, there are four principal lists in &#039;&#039;Mahabharata&#039;&#039;:<br /> #Comprising respectively the tribes defeated by [[Yudhishthira]]&#039;s four brothers ([[Sabha Parva]], Book 2 Chapters 23-29<br /> #Tribes bringing gifts at Yudhishthira&#039;s consecration as king emperor Sabha Parva, Book 2 Chapters 45-48<br /> #Tribes mentioned in the &#039;geography&#039; in [[Bhishma Parva]], Book 6 Chapter X<br /> #Kings and warriors of various tribes, who came to the ceremony for investing [[Kartikeya]] with the status of generalissimo: [[Shalya Parva]], Book IX Chapter 44<br /> <br /> == Notes ==<br /> {{reflist}}<br /> <br /> == External links ==<br /> * [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/index.htm The &#039;&#039;Mahabharata&#039;&#039; in Sanskrit: Index]<br /> <br /> {{Mahabharata}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Social groups of India]]<br /> [[Category:Mahabharata]]</div>

>Randy Kryn