To be published in: Ancient vol. 15 (December 2019). Khairpur, Sindh, .

Asko Parpola:

The lands of Sindhu and Sauvīra and their king in the Mahābhārata

When the editor, Professor Qasid Mallah of the Shah Abdul Latif University of Khairpur, Sindh, invited me to contribute to the forthcoming issue of Ancient Sindh, I decided to find out and write about what the great epic Mahābhārata can tell about Sindh. The gradual development of this epic to its present extent of around 100.000 verses took many centuries, approximately between 400 BCE to 400 CE. (On this question and in general on the Mahābhārata, see Brockington 1998.) The various epic and purāṇic texts have long lists of peoples residing in different parts of South Asia (bhāratavarṣa). The names of the peoples called Sindhu and Sauvīra are often joined together as a compound, sindhusauvīrāḥ, apparently because they were two very closely related peoples, or even because they formed one and the same people with slightly different areas of residence. In a list of northern peoples common to the Mahābhārata (6,10,52) and the Padma-Purāṇa (3,6), the Sindhu and Sauvīra peoples are placed between the Kashmiris (kāśmīrāḥ) and the people of Gandhāra (gāndhārāḥ) (Kirfel 1920: 78). This is in agreement with the following verse of peoples residing in the north, found in six purāṇa texts (Brahmāṇḍa-P., Brahma-P., Mārkaṇḍeya-P., Matsya-P., Vāmana-P., Vāyu-P., some with corrupted variants): gāndhārā yavanāś caiva sindhusauvīramadrakāḥ (Kirfel 1920: 72; Sircar 1971: 33). Here the sindhusauvīrāḥ are placed between the people of Gandhāra (around Swat and Peshawar in Pakistan) and the Yavanas, i.e. the Indo-Greeks (residing chiefly in Bactria and Kandahar in Afghanistan) on the one hand, and the people of the Madra country (around Sialkot) on the other. According to Al-Bīrūṇī, the Sauvīra country included Mūltān and Jahrāvār (about 75 km south of the junction of the Jhelam and the Chenab (Sachau 1888:I, 259-260, 300; Sircar 1971: 33 n. 2). In the Mārkaṇḍeya-Purāṇa (58) and in Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā (14), the sindhusauvīrāḥ are placed between kāmbojāḥ and vaḍavāmukha. Aśoka’s Rock Edict V mentions together the Yonas, Kambojas and Gandhāras (yonakaṃbojagaṃdhārānāṃ), and the Kāmbojas have usually been assumed to have dwelt in different parts of eastern Afghanistan (Sircar 1971: 195-200). Vaḍavāmukha literally means ‘mare’s mouth’ and refers to the submarine fire that drinks up water of the southern ocean; this very probably refers to the strong ebb of tide in the Indus delta (Parpola & Janhunen 2011: 84-85). The name Sindhu naturally comes from the river name Sindhu, i.e. the Indus River. Traditionally it has denoted modern Sindh, the area around the lower Indus south of the “land of the five rivers”. Sircar (1971: 33 n. 2) thought that in epic-purāṇic sources Sindhu refers to the area west of the lower Indus, and Sauvīra to the area east of it. Another suggestion is that “Sindhu is the modern Sindh and Sauvīra may have been part of Upper Sindh … The identification of Sauvīra by Alberuni with Multan and Jahrawar seems to be correct” (Dey 1927: 183). The latter conclusion agrees with the fact that among the four Sauvīra kings vanquished by in the extra verses (39-45) added in some manuscripts after Mahābhārata 1,128,18 (and omitted in the critical edition), one is an Indo-Greek (yavanādhipaḥ), and another called Dattamitra or Dattāmitra alias Sumitra. Dattāmitra has, since Christian Lassen (1867: I, 804-5), almost unanimously been interpreted to denote the Indo-Greek king Demetrius, but Manfred Mayrhofer (1991) recently proposed that it is rather an Iranian name, Dātā-mithra, parallelled by Mithridatēs (as this Iranian name appears in Greek sources). (Karttunen 2015: 21-22; 348) Sindhu and its derivative Saindhava ‘belonging to, or coming from Sindhu’ and Suvīra (‘possessing mighty heroes’) and its derivative Sauvīra as names of people or country occur hundreds of times in the Mahābhārata. Saindhava ‘coming from Sindhu’ is in some 15 cases used of horses (vājinaḥ, aśvāḥ, hayāḥ, vāhāḥ, turaṃgamāḥ), or ‘good/best horses’ (sadaśvāḥ, sādhuvāhinaḥ, hayottamāḥ) (Sörensen 1925: 607-608). “As Indians painfully realized the importance of good and large cavalry forces through their encounters with Greeks, Kushans, Huns, etc., procurement of adequate horses became a major issue. The Indian climate, the unavailability of proper fodder together with improper handling in general made frequent imports of fresh horses from the north and northwest necessary; already Vinaya-Piṭaka III 5 refers to horse-dealers from northern ” (Scharfe 1989: 194-195). Indeed, the swift Saindhava, Yavana and Kāmboja horses are praised in the Mahābhārata, and are mentioned as the best breeds for war even in the much later Manasollāsa (2,3,573). The Arthaśāstra ascribed to Kauṭilya (2,30,29) mentions Kāmboja, Sindhu, Āraṭṭa and Vanāyu as the countries from which the best horses could be imported (Karttunen 1997: 178; 2015: 350). Āraṭṭa was in Bactria in northern Afghanistan (Parpola 2015: 216), while Vanāyu has been thought to refer to (Olivelle 2013: 466). Apart from the horses, the Mahābhārata (3,87,12) mentions also the Forest of the Sindhu (saindhavāraṇyaṃ puṇyam) among the holy places in the west. In most cases, however, the words sindhu/saindhava and suvīra/sauvīra are part of the various appellations or attributes of Jayadratha, King of Sindhu or the Sindhu people, King of Suvīra or Sauvīra, Ruler of Sindhu and Sauvīra: rājā sindhūnam, sindhurāj, sindhurājaḥ, sindhurājā, sindhupatiḥ, saindhavaḥ, saindhavako rājā, saindhavako nṛpaḥ, suvīraḥ, suvīrarāṣṭrapaḥ, sauvīraḥ, sauvīrakaḥ, sauvīrarājaḥ, sindhusauvīrabhartā, patiḥ sauvīrasindhūnām, sauvīrasindhūnām īśvaraḥ (Sörensen 1925: 357-363; 607-608; 635). Jayadratha is a notable character in the epic, and the text portions dealing with him should not belong to the very youngest parts of the great epic. What the epic tells about Jayadratha is in fact practically all we learn about Sindhu in the Mahābhārata in addition to its fame of good horses and its holy forest. Jayadratha’s name means ‘possessing a victorious chariot’; his patronym is Vārddhakṣatri. When Jayadratha after a long waiting time was finally born to the Sindhu king Vṛddhakṣatra (‘one whose ruling power has grown’), an incorporeal and unseen voice announced that the boy would become one of the foremost warriors, but another eminent kṣatriya would cut off his head in battle. Then his father summoned all his relatives to witness his curse: whoever would cause Jayadratha’s head to fall on earth, the head of that man would split into a hundred pieces (dharaṇyāṃ mama putrasya pātayiṣyati yaḥ śiraḥ / tasyāpi śatadhā mūrdhā phaliṣyati na saṃśayaḥ, Mahābhārata 7,121,22). Comment: The verbal debators of the early Upaniṣads (now datable to the early 5th century BCE, see Parpola 2019) threatened their adversaries that in case of ignorance their head would fall off (e.g. Bṛhad-Āraṇyaka-Upaniṣad 3,9,26 taṃ cen me na vivakṣyasi mūrdhā te vipatiṣyatīti); but the motif of the head splitting into a hundred pieces in such curses is found only in post-Vedic texts (e.g. Somadeva’s Kathāsaritsāgara 12,17,63 jānan yadi na vadiṣyasi vidaliṣyati te śiraḥ śatadhā). A penetrating study of this theme in Vedic literature is Witzel 1987; he deals also with Buddhist texts, where the head is cursed to split into seven pieces. The blind old king Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred heroic sons but only one daughter, Duḥśalā, whose mother was Gāndhārī (Mahābhārata 1,107,37; 1,108,1-17). Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave her in marriage to Jayadratha, King of Sindhu (Mahābhārata 1,108,17-18). Jayadratha was one of the royal suitors who had come to Draupadī’s svayaṃvara (Mahābhārata 1,177,19), i.e. a wedding where the bride could herself choose her husband. In this case, Draupadī chose all the five Pāṇḍava brothers as her husbands, the main heroes of the epic Mahābhārata (Yudhiṣṭhira, Arjuna, Bhīma, and ); this polyandrous marriage was felt scandalous, never heard of, by all present. Jayadratha attended as a guest also Yudhiṣṭhira’s royal consecration (Mahābhārata 2,31,8; 2,32,7), and also the subsequent dicing game between the Pāṇḍavas and (Mahābhārata 2,52,25). In this game Śakuni playing for the Kauravas repeatedly tricked, and the losing Pāṇḍavas had to go for an exile, twelve year in the forests, and one year in the open incognito. The next episode in which Jayadratha figures in the Mahābhārata, called “the Abduction of ” (Mahābhārata 3,248-283), he is the principal character, and from this episode we learn much about him, especially about the the kings subservient to or allied with him. The Pāṇḍavas left Draupadī at the hermitage of Tṛṇabindu with Tṛṇabindu’s house priest Dhaumya, and left for hunting into different directions in the game-rich Kāmyaka forest. “Meanwhile the famed king of the Sindhus, the son of Vṛddhakṣatra, was proceeding to the land of the Śālvas, being in a marrying mood. Surrounded by a large retinue as befitting a king and accompanied by many princes, he arrived at Kāmyaka. There he saw the glorious Draupadī, beloved wife of the Pāṇḍavas, standing at the hermitage gate in the empty forest, radiating superb beauty … The king of the Sindhus Jayadratha Vārddhakṣatri was astounded and happy of heart at the sight of her flawless limbs. Love-smitten, he said to Prince Koṭikāśya, ‘Whose is this woman of flawless limbs, if she is human at all? There is no point for me to marry now that I have seen this superbly beautiful lady! … Go and find out who her protector is, Koṭika!” (Mahābhārata 3,248,6-17, translated by van Buitenen 1975: 707). Koṭikāśya approached Draupadī, asked who she was and who was her protector, and then introduced himself and the rest of the retinue, which included: - Koṭikāśya, son of the Śibi king Suratha - Kṣemaṃkara, the king of Trigarta - the son of the king of Kuṇinda [variant Kulinda], who always lives in the mountains (parvatavāsanityaḥ) - the son of Subala, king of Ikṣvāku - 12 Sauvīraka princes as standard bearers on chariots yoked with blood-red horses, Aṅgāraka, Kuñjara, Guptaka, Śatruṃjaya, Saṃjaya, Supravṛddha, Prabhaṃkara, Ravi, Bhramara, Kuhara, Pratāpa, and Śūra by name. “Who is followed by six thousand chariot warriors and elephants, horses, and soldiers on foot: If you’ve heard the name of Jayadratha, King of Sauvīra, this is he, lucky woman! His brothers, all of undaunted mettle, Balāhaka, Anīkavidāraṇa, and the other heroic Suvīra youths are behind the king in all their strength. The King is ajourneying with these companions, as Indra amidst his Marut guards.” (Mahābhārata 3,249, translated van Buitenen 1975: 708-709). Comments: The Kāmyaka forest was on the the banks of the Sarasvatī River in the Kurukṣetra (Dey 1927: 88). — The six branches of the Śālva people lived in the Panjab and the adjoining regions of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan (Sircar 1971: 30; Dey 1927: 175); in the Vedic Gopatha-Brāhmaṇa (1,2,9), the Śālva people are mentioned in association with the Matsyas, whose territory was around Alwar, Jaipur and Bharatpur in Rajasthan (Macdonell & Keith 1912: II, 122). — The Sivi Jātaka (IV p. 250) mentions Ariṭṭhapura as a town of the kingdom of Sivi and says that Prince Sivi studied at Takkasilā (Taxila). Ariṭṭhapura corresponds to Ariṣṭapura indicated in Pāṇini (6,2,100) and Aristobáthra placed in northern in Ptolemy’s map (7,1,57). According to the Mahābhārata (3,130), the Śibi king Uśīnara gave his own flesh to save a dove; two Chinese pilgrims place this story in Udyāna, or modern Swat. Śibi Auśīnara is mentioned already in the Vedic Baudhāyana-Śrautasūtra (18,49), where is is connected with a place called Varṣiṣṭhīya-prastha (Macdonell and Keith 1912: II, 380). On the other hand, there is even today a place called Sibi in Pakistani Baluchistan, and Mediaeval sources speak of Siwistān in Sindh. Moreover, coins of Śivi have been found at Nāgari near Chittor in Rajasthan, identified by Cunningham with Jetuttara that the Vessantara Jātaka (VI p. 246) mentions as the capital of Sivi. Other texts give further locations for Śibi, and one cannot exclude movements of Śibi people. (Dey 1927: 11; 187-188; Karttunen 1997: 39-40; 283 n. 172) — Trigarta is identified with modern Jālandhara in western Punjab between the rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej; this is confirmed by ancient inscriptions. (Dey 1927: 205). — The Kulindas (called Kuṇinda in their coins) lived in the foothills of the Himalayas from the Kulu Valley t6o Garhwal, their place being Kulindrēnē in Ptolemy’s map (7,1,42) (Dey 1927: 106; Sircar 1971: 33 n. 3). The Mahābhārata refers in many places to a son of the king of the Kulindas, sometimes identified as Subāhu, who lived in the Himalayas (Sörensen 1925: 433; 651). — Ikṣvāku is connected with Ayodhyā, the capital of Rāma and his ancestors, but here it belongs to the northwest of the subcontinent. Ikṣvāku is mentioned as a prince in a late hymn of the Ṛgveda (10,60,4); in the Atharvaveda (14,39,9) Ikṣvāku is an ancient hero. The Pañcaviṃśa-Brāhmaṇa (13,3,12) mentions Tryaruṇa Traidhātva Aikṣvākya, who has been identified with Tryaruṇa Trasadasyu of the Ṛgveda, suggesting the the Ikṣvākus originally belonged to the Pūru line; this is confirmed by the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa (13,5,4,5), according to which the Ṛgvedic king Purukutsa was an Aikṣvāka. They have been placed in the upper Indus, but may well have been somewhat further east (Macdonell & Keith 1912: I,75). The Mahābhārata refers to several Ikṣvākus, but apart from Ayodhyā without location (Sörensen 1925: 327). “Thereupon, while all the kings were seated, … the king of Suvīra, having listened to Kotikāśya’s report, spoke to the Śaibya: ‘ … Now tell me, Śaibya, whether that beautiful woman is a human.’ Koṭikāśya said: ‘She is the famous Princess Kṛṣṇā Draupadī, the highly held queen of the five sons of Pāṇḍu. She is very beloved and greatly esteemed by all five Pārthas [metronym from Pṛthā, the mother of Yudhiṣṭhira, Arjuna and Bhīma]. Now that you have encountered her, king of Suvīra, go happily back to the land of Suvīra!’ He replied: ‘Let us visit Draupadi!’ … He entered the empty hermitage, like a wolf in a den of lions, in a party of seven.” (Mahābhārata 3,251, translated van Buitenen 1975 2/3: 710). Draupadī offered his surprise guest water to wash his feet and a seat, as prescribed by the rules of hospitality, and served him and his companions a breakfast of fifty deer. Now Jayadratha said: “You have already done me fully all the honors of a breakfast. Come, mount my chariot and find complete happiness. Now don’t be so amenable to the wretched forest-haunting Pārthas: their fortunes a down, and they have lost their kingdom and their wits … Be my wife, woman of the beautiful hips, desert them, and enjoy yourself! With me you get all the land of Sindhu and Sauvīra!” (Mahābhārata 3,251, translated van Buitenen 1975: 710). Draupadī in contempt turned Jayadratha’s offer down, and warned him of the dire consequences of his insult of the Pāṇḍavas. Jayadratha, however, seized her and abducted her in his chariot, unmindful of the warnings of the hermitage priest Dhaumya, who followed the princess when she was being carried off. (Mahābhārata 3,252.) The five Pāṇḍavas, returning from hunting, learnt what had happened from the serving maid of their wife. Following the fresh trail of Jayadratha’s retinue, the five brothers in fury attacked the army of Jayadratha, killing all his heroes (Śibi Koṭikāśya, Trigarta prince Suratha, Kṣemaṃkara, Mahāmukha, and all twelve Suvīra princes are specifically mentioned) and hundreds of warriors. The King of Sindhu now let Draupadī go and fled. (Mahābhārata 3,253-255.) Dismounting from the chariot, Bhīma pursued the running Jayadratha, indignantly seized him by the hair, and gave him such a thrashing that he lost consciousness. The other Pāṇḍavas however, for Duḥśalā’s sake, prevented Bhīma from killing Jayadratha, but with an arrow’s blade Bhīma shaved the Sindhu king’s head save for five tufts. Jayadratha’s life was spared on the condition that he would publicly at assemblies and courts admit being a slave of the Pāṇḍavas. Finally, he could leave with his surviving horses, chariots and footmen. (Mahābhārata 3,256.) Embarrassed and grieving, Jayadratha went on pilgrimage to Gaṅgādvāra (Gangothri), worshipping Śiva with many penancies. The God was pleased and gave him a boon. Jayadratha’s wish was, “May I vanquish all five Pāṇḍavas on their chariots!” Śiva granted him this victory in battle excepting Arjuna protected by Kṛṣṇa. Having heard this, the king went to his own place, and the Pāṇḍavas stayed in the Kāmyaka forest. (Mahābhārata 3,256) When the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas were preparing for war, Jayadratha and other kings residing in Sindhu-Sauvīra brought one of the eleven armies (akṣauhiṇī senā) that constitutes the fighting force (bala) of the Kauravas. (Mahābhārata 5,19,19-20). Immediately hereafter is mentioned the arrival of the army of the Kāmbojas, Yavanas (Indo-Greeks) and Śakas. On the thirteenth day of the great fight, Jayadratha and his army fought bravely and victoriously. Yudhiṣṭhira asked Arjuna’s heroic juvenile son to break the enemy battle formation. (Mahābhārata 7,33) Abhimanyu, performing this task, killed many famous warriors, but was killed in club-fight (Mahābhārata 7,48). Arjuna in his grievance vowed to fell the head of the Sindhu king on the ground (Mahābhārata 7,53,33 mūrdhānaṃ sindhurājasya pātayiṣyāmi bhūtale), and this remained his foremost task. On the fourteenth day Arjuna caused terrible carnage until at last in the evening he had vanquished all the six heroes that surrounded Jayadratha as protectors; he killed Jayadratha’s charioteer, and cut off Jayadratha’s standard with arrows so that even the boars bearing the standard fell down. (The standard is described in Mahābhārata 7,105,20 varāhaḥ sindhurājasya rājato ‘bhivirājate / dvajāgre ‘lohitārkābho hemajālapariṣkṛtaḥ “At the top of the Sindhu king’s standard a silvery boar radiated the glow of bloodless/pale sun, decked with nets of gold.) When Arjuna placed the magic arrow on the string of the Gāṇḍīva bow he had received from God Śiva, his charioteer Kṛṣṇa told him about the curse Jayadratha’s father had pronounced when he heard about the fate of his newborn son. Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna to cut Jaradratha’s head with his magic weapon so that it would not fall on the ground (lest Arjuna’s head should split into a hundred pieces), but would fly further and fall on the lap of Vṛddhakṣatra. After installing Jayadratha on the throne, Vṛddhakṣatra had retired to forests near Samantapañcaka (a place of pilgrimage in Kurukṣetra) and performed there penancies as a hermit. Seated reciting his evening prayers, the retired king did not perceive the head of his son adorned with earrings that fell on his lap; when he stood up after the prayer, the head fell on ground, and the old king died mercifully without learning about the death of his son. (Mahābhārata 7,121) In the eleventh book describing the laments of the wives of the fallen heroes while trying to save their bodies from the vultures and other scavangers feasting on the battlefield, the Mahabhārata (11,22,8-18) speaks of the wives of Jayadratha: besides Duḥśalā, they included Sindhu, Sauvīra, Gāndhāra, Kāmboja ja Yavana women. This passage also mentions that the Kekayas assisted Jayadratha when he attempted the rape of Draupadī. The Kekayas, as appears from a fragment of the account of India by the Greek Megasthenes (c. 300 BCE), lived between the Beas and the Sutlej (Karttunen 1997: 117). The Mahābhārata finishes its story about Jayadratha with an episode of peace and mercy (14,76-77). The Pāṇḍavas were performing the supreme royal rite of horse sacrifice (aśvamedha), in which the stallion elected as the chief victim is allowed to roam around freely, protected by a guard of the sacrificing king. When the horse entered the territory of the Saindhavas, their surviving warriors started fierce fight against Arjuna, who followed the horse as its protector. The memory of Jayadratha’s fate increased the fury of the Saindhavas. After a fierce fight, Arjuna remembered his brothers advice not to kill the enemies. Jayadratha’s widow Duḥśalā came to Arjuna, carrying her baby grandson to Arjuna, and asking for mercy. Jayadratha’s son Suratha had died of sorrow after hearing of Jayadratha’s death, but with Arjuna’s blessings his son could continue ruling the Saindhavas. What can we conclude of all this? It seems to me that the region of the Lower Indus, i.e., today’s Sindh, is quite absent from the Mahābhārata; the only thing in the material presented above that to my mind is likely to relate specifically to the region of modern Sindh is the reference to Vaḍavāmukha, which may relate to the Indus delta. Sindhu in the Mahābhārata seems to be truly synonymous with the name Suvīra/Sauvīra, which can only be connected with the region of the Upper Indus, i.e., more or less, the Punjab. Even the Saindhava horses may have come from the Punjab rather than from Sindh. The action of the Mahābhārata took place in Kurukṣetra and the surrounding regions, and Sindh appears to have been beyond this geographical focus.

References

Brockington, John, 1998. The Sanskrit Epics. (Handbuch der Orientalistik 2: 12.) Leiden: Brill.

Dey, Nundo Lal, 1927. The geographical dictionary of ancient and mediæval India. Revised edition. (Calcutta Oriental Series, no. 21, E-13.) London: Luzac & Co.

Karttunen, Klaus, 1997. India and the Hellenistic World. (Studia Orientalia, 83.) Helsinki: The Finnish Oriental Society.

Karttunen, Klaus, 2015. Yonas and Yavanas in Indian literature. (Studia Orientalia, 116.) Helsinki: The Finnish Oriental Society.

Kirfel, Willibald, 1920. Die Kosmographie der Inder nach Quellen dargestellt. Bonn und Leipzig: Kurt Schroeder.

Lassen, Christian, 1867. Indische Alterthumskunde, I: Geographie, Ethnographie und älteste Geschichte. Zweite verbesserte und sehr vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig: Verlag von L. A. Kittler.

Macdonell, Arthur Anthony, & Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1912. Vedic index of names and subjects, I-II. London: John Murray.

Mahābhārata: The Mahābhārata, critically edited by V. S. Sukthankar, S. K. Belvalkar and P. L. Vaidya, I-XIX. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1933-1959. Electronic version: On the basis of the text entered by Muneo Tokunaga et al. revised by John Smith et al., 1999. http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html Mayrhofer, Manfred, 1991. Ein iranischer Fürstenname im Mahābhārata? Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 103: 195-197.

Olivelle, Patrick, 2013. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra. A new annotated translation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Parpola, Asko, 2015. The Roots of : The Early and the Indus Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press.

Parpola, Asko, 2019. The Mirror in Vedic India: Its ancient use, and its present relevance in dating texts. Studia Orientalia Electronica 7: 1-29.

Parpola, Asko, and Juha Janhunen, 2011. On the Asiatic wild asses (Equus hemionus & Equus kiang) and their vernacular names: New revised version. Pp. 59-124 in: Toshiki Osada and Hitoshi Endo (eds.), Linguistics, archaeology and the human past: Occasional paper 12. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. Reprinted, pp. 59-124 in: Toshiki Osada & Hitoshi Endo (eds.), Current studies on the Indus Civilization, vol. IX. Delhi: Manohar, 2012.

Sachau, Edward C., 1888. Alberuni's India. An account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about A.D. 1030. Edited, with notes and indices. I-II. (Trübner's Oriental Series.) London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.

Scharfe, Hartmut, 1989. The State in Indian Tradition. (Handbuch der Orientalistik 2: 3: 2.) Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Sircar, D. C., 1971. Studies in the geography of ancient and medieval India. 2nd revised and enlarged edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Sörensen, Sören, 1925. An index to the names in the Mahābhārata with short explanations and a concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta editions and P. C. Roy's translation. [Edited after the author's death by Elof Olesen.]. London: Ernest Benn. van Buitenen, J. A. B., 1973. The Mahābhārata, translated and edited. 1: The Book of the Beginning. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. van Buitenen, J. A. B. 1975. The Mahābhārata, translated and edited. 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall. 3: The Book of the Forest. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Witzel, Michael, 1987. The case of the shattered head. Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 13/14 (Festschrift Wilhelm Rau): 363-415.