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Cedī (Sanskrit: Cedī) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of central South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The members of the Cedī tribe were named the Caidyas, and were organised into a kingdom, itself also called Cedī.[1]
Cedī Janapada | |
|---|---|
| c. 1200 BCE–c. 300 BCE | |
.png) The Cedī kingdom and other Mahajanapadas in the Post Vedic | |
| Capital | Śuktimatī or Sotthivatī |
| Common languages | Prakrits |
| Government | Monarchy |
| Historical era | Iron Age India |
• Established | c. 1200 BCE |
• Disestablished | c. 300 BCE |
| Today part of | India |
Location
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The territory of Cedī was located near the Yamunā river, and its neighbours were Matsya in the west across the Chambal river, Kāsī in the north-east on the Ganges, the Kāruṣas in east in the valley of the Son river, and the Daśārṇas on the banks of the Dhasan river. The area of Cedī thus corresponded to the eastern part of the modern-day Bundelkhaṇḍ along with nearby tracts.[1]
The capital of Cedī was named Sotthivatī in Pāli and Śuktimatī in Sanskrit, and was located by a river of the same name.[1] The location of the capital Suktimati has not been established with certainty. Historian Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri and F. E. Pargiter believed that it was in the vicinity of Banda, Uttar Pradesh.[1] Archaeologist Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti has proposed that Suktimati can be identified as the ruins of a large early historical city, at a place with the modern-day name Itaha, on the outskirts of Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.[2]
History
editThe Cedī tribe was mentioned in the Ṛgveda, where their king Caidya is praised in a Dānastuti ("praise of gift") at the end of a hymn.[1] According to the Rigveda, Sisupala, who was an ally of Jarasandh of Magadh and Duryodhan of Kuru, ruled the Chedi kingdom. According to Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharvela “A branch of Chedis founded as a royal dynasty in the kingdom Kalinga.”[citation needed]
By the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, Cedī had become one of the more important states in Iron Age South Asia, due to which the Buddhist text, the Aṅguttara Nikāya, listed it as one of the solasa Mahājanapadas ("sixteen great states").[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f Raychaudhuri 1953, p. 128-130.
- ^ Chakrabarti, Dilip Kumar (2000), "Mahajanapada States of Early Historic India", in Hansen, Mogens Herman (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures: An Investigation, Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, p. 387, ISBN 9788778761774
Further reading
edit- Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (1953). Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty. University of Calcutta.