Tribes
The tribes topic hub collects all tribes mentioned in the janapada sources and links each entry to its role in the wider civilizational narrative.
Topics
- Anava: One of the pancha-gana, or five Tribes, descended from chakravartin yayati nahushya. By the era of Sudas paijavana, they have turned belligerent.
- Apsara: The tribe from beyond the himalaya with a semi-mythic status among the people of the plains. Known to be masters of song and dance, remnants survive in forest such as naimisharanya.
- Dasa: The name given by bharatas to a conglomerate of enemy and mleccha Tribes. Dasa bands are composed of druhyus, danavas, anavas, shighras, shakas, hunas, yavanas and more. They have become rare in bharatavarsha since the defeat of their leader Shambara at the hands of rajan Divodasa.
- Dasyu: A sub-section of dasas composed entirely of mantric priests and fire-purohitas. Considered by bharatas to be fallen angiras, they draw descent directly from diti, the first wife of maharishi kashyapa of the old eras.
- Gandharva: A tribe from beyond the himalaya that have resided in bharatavarsha from the earliest eras. Fought on the aditya side throughout the wars of the early manvantaras. Were in conflict with manushya Tribes till their chieftain Chitraratha forged an alliance with chakravartin Nahusha.
- Vrishni: A Yadava subclan, found residing the yamuna river before its confluence with ganga.
- Yadava: One of the five pancha-gana Tribes descended from chakravartin yayati nahushya. Named after yayati’s eldest son - yadu. Several yadava subclans abound, Vrishni and haihaya being more prominent among them.
- Yavana: A mleccha tribe from the far west. Yavanas often fought in Dasa armies, though some yavana thinkers - calling themselves ‘wisdom-lovers’ often visit bharatavarsha to learn from its drashtas.