Taitila

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

Taitila (तितिल) was country in Mahabharata period mentioned by Panini.

Variants of name

• Taitila-Kadru (तैतिल-कद्रु)
• Taitila-kadru (तैतिल-कद्रु)
• Tittirakalmasha /Tittirakalmāsha (तित्तिरिकल्माष) (Mahabharata: II.47.4)

Jat clans

• Tetarwal

Mention by Panini

Taitila-Kadru (तैतिल-कद्रू) is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi.

History

V. S. Agrawala writes that Ashtadhyayi of Panini refers to Taitila-Kadru (तितिल-कद्रु) (IV.2.42). Taitila country is known for horses. These horses came from Uttarakuru (north of Pamir in Central Asia). Taitila-Kadru is same as Tittirakalmāsha (तित्तिरिकल्माष) of Sabhaparva (II.28.6,19) (II.47.4). Taitila is synonymous with Kalinga , which may be identified with Titilgarh, south of Sambalpur in Orissa.

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During the time of Grammarian Panini (5th Century B.C), a territory named Taitila Janapada flourished to the west of Kalinga and that territory has been associated by historians with the modern town of Titlagarh in Balangir district. Taitala Janapada was famous for trade in some commodities described by the Grammarian as "Kadru" the meaning of which may be either horse or cotton fabrics.

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V S Agarwal writes about Vrātas = Vrātyas - [p.440]: The Vratas seem to have been same as Vratyas. They are said to used a kind of very small wagon covered with a plank for seat and useful for driving along trackless paths (vipatha; also phalakāstīrṇa, from which Hindi word phirak, a dialectical word still in use), a string less bow not using arrows but probably sling balls or pellets, below like skin quivers as used by Shakas, a silver disc around neck, goat-skin or postīn (āvika), tilted cornate turban, and a kind of cloth woven with black thread or of a different colour, but fringed with streaks of black colour, and called kadru . Panini’s reference to Taitila-Kadru (VI.2.42) is very likely to the Kadru cloth of the Taitila Country. Kautilya mentions Taitila as a breed of horses which from its association with other names of north-western countries as Kambhoja, Sindhu, Bahlika, Sauvira, and Vānāyu (Wana Valley) should be taken as being imported from north-west India. This gives an indication of the place of origin of the Taitila-kadru, if the rendering of kadru as the name of a fabric in use amongst the Vratya be correct.

In Mahabharata

Sabha Parva, Mahabharata/Book II Chapter 47 gives list of Kings who brought tributes to Yudhishthira. Tittirakalmāsha (तित्तिरिकल्माष) is mentioned in verse (II.47.4). ...And he also gave three hundred horses of the Tittiri and the Kalmasha species possessing noses like parrots. And he also gave three hundred camels and an equal number of she-asses, all fattened with the olives and the Pilusha.