177:6 The list of nations is as scanty as that of the rivers: it is, however, omitted altogether in the Bhágavata. The Padma has a long catalogue, but without arrangement; so has the Mahábhárata. The lists of the Váyu, Matsya, and Márkańd́eya class the nations as central, northern, eastern, southern, and western. The names are much the same in all, and are given in the 8th vol. of the As. Res. from the Brahmáńd́a, or, for it is the same account, the Váyu. The Márkańd́eya has a second classification, and, comparing Bhárata-varsha to a tortoise, with its head to the east, enumerates the countries in the head, tail, flanks, and feet of the animal. It will be sufficient here to attempt an identification of the names in the text, but some further illustration is offered at the end of the chapter. The Kurus are the people of Kurukshetra, or the upper part of the Doab, about Delhi. The Pánchálas, it appears from the Mahábhárata, occupied the lower part of the Doab, extending across the Jumna to the Chambal. Kullúka Bhat́t́a, in his commentary on Manu, II. 59, places them at Kanoj. Kámarupa is the north-eastern part of Bengal, and western portion of Asam. Puńd́ra is Bengal proper, with part of south Behar and the Jungle Mahals. Kalinga is the sea-coast west of the mouths of the Ganges, with the upper part of the Coromandel coast. Magadhá is Behar. The Saurásht́ras are the people of Surat, the Surastrene of Ptolemy. The Śúras and Bhíras, in the same direction, may be the Suri and Phauni or Phryni of Strabo. The Arbudas must be the people about mount Abu, or the natives of Mewar. The Kárushas and Málavas are of course the people of Malwa. The Sauvíras and Saindhavas are usually conjoined as the Sindhu-Sauvíras, and must be the nations of Sindh and western Rajputána. By the Minas we are to understand the white Huns or Indo-Scythians, who were established in the Punjab and along the Indus at the commencement of our era, as we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries of their coins, The Śálwas or, as also read, Śályas are placed by the Váyu and Matsya amongst the central nations, and seem to have occupied part of Rájasthan, a Śálwa Rája being elsewhere described as engaging in hostilities with the people of Dwaraká in Guzerat. Śákala, as I have elsewhere noticed, is a city in the Punjab (As. Res. XV. 108), the Sagala of Ptolemy (ibid. 107); the Mahábhárata makes it the capital of the Madras, the Mardi of the ancients; but they are separately named in the text, and were situated something more to the south-east. p. 178 The Rámas and Ambasht́has are not named in the other Puráńas, but the latter are amongst the western, or more properly north-western nations subjugated by Nakula, in his Dig-vijaya. Mahábh. Sabhá P. Ambas and Ambasht́has are included in the list extracted by Col. Wilford from the Varáha Sanhitá, and the latter are supposed by him to be the Ambastæ of Arrian. The Párasíkas carry us into Persia, or that part of it adjoining to the Indus. As far as the enumeration of the text extends, it seems applicable to the political and geographical divisions of India about the era of Christianity.