TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

The story, as told in ŚB, expressively mentions the role of the ritual fire,
called Agni Vaiśvānara in the legend, in making the marshy country of
the East arable and128acceptable for Brahmins. The Māthavas, about
whom nothing is known outside the ŚB, may be the Máthai of
Megasthenes who places them East of the Pazálai (Pañcāla), at the
confluence of the Erénnesis (Son) with the Ganges. 331 While the
movement of some clans and their King Videgha from the River
Sarasvatī in Kurukṣetra to the East may coincide with the 'ritual
settlement' of Kosala(-Videha), this is not to be confused with the
wholesale movement of Vedic Śākhās, like the one of Kāṇva, Śāṇḍilya,
and Aitareyin eastwards, to Kosala and Videha.
A final stage is reached only in the Pāli texts: Suddenly, we do not read
about the Kosala-Videha but about a separate Kosala kingdom and a
large Vajji (= Vṛjji) confederation which includes tribes like the
Licchavi, Naya, and the Videha. West of them live the Śākya, Bulinda,
Malla, Moriya and Kalāma. None of these tribes, with the exception of
the Videha and the Malla, is known from the Vedic texts. Interestingly,
JB still locates the Malla in the desert (Tharr, see JB §198; cf. the Malloi
of the Greeks in S. Panjab). Equally, the Vṛji of Pāṇini 4.2.131 are
mentioned together with the Madra; in all probability, they still were
inhabitants of the Panjab at the time. What we see here is, I believe, the
last wave of immigration which overran Northern India in Vedic time
and which came to an end in its easternmost part (at that time), in N.
Bihar. Note the somewhat unusual origin of the Śākya from a marriage
of the sons of King Okkāka with their sisters and compare that even in
Manu, the Nicchavi (sic) still are regarded as only half-orthoprax. This
wave of immigration from the West is fairly late, as no Vedic text
contains any hint of it and it is only Pāṇini (4.2.131 Vṛji, Vṛjika) and the
Pāli canon which provide a clue to it.
sudden replacement of whole schools, notably the Aitareyins, Śāṇdilya, Śākala, and Kāṇvas
into the East.- Cf. the RV name Namin Sāpya as King of Videha at PB 25.10.17,
interestingly described as making a pilgrimage to Kurukṣetra, the holy land of the Veda
and the home of Gotama Rahūgaṇa and Videgha Māthava who in ŚB are the prototypes of
the eastward movement of Vedic orthopraxy.
331 See Arrian, Indikē 4.5 and cf. the commentary by O.v. Hinüber, in: Arrian, Der
Alexanderzug. Indische Geschichte, hg. und übers. von G. Wirth u. O.v.H., München u.
Zürich (Artemis) 1985, p. 1095; cf. also author, Fs. Eggermont.
128