Cedī (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

of central

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

whose existence is attested during the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

. The members of the Cedī tribe were named the Caidyas, and were organised into a kingdom, itself also called Cedī.

Location

The territory of Cedī was located near the Yamunā river, and its neighbours were

Matsya Matsya ( sa, मत्स्य, lit. ''fish'') is the fish avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Often described as the first of Vishnu's ten primary avatars, Matsya is described to have rescued the first man, Manu, from a great deluge. Matsya m ...

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 A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

river, and the

Daśārṇa Daśārṇa (Sanskrit: ) was an ancient tribe of south-central South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. Location The Daśārṇas lived on the Dasān river. Their neighbours to the south-east were the Pulinda Pulinda (S ...

s 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. The capital of Cedī was named Sotthivatī in

Pāli Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

and Śuktimatī in Sanskrit, and was located by a river of the same name. The location of the capital Suktimati has not been established with certainty. Historian

Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri ( bn, হেম চন্দ্র রায়চৌধুরী) (8 April 1892 – 4 May 1957Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (1972). ''Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of ...

and

F. E. Pargiter Frederick Eden Pargiter (1852–18 February 1927) was a British civil servant and Orientalist. Born in 1852, Pargiter was the second son of Rev. Robert Pargiter. He studied at Taunton Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford where he passed in ...

believed that it was in the vicinity of

Banda, Uttar Pradesh Banda is a city and a municipal board in Banda district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Banda is divided between north, east, west and south Banda. Banda lies south of the Yamuna river in the Bundelkhand region. It is the administrative ...

. Archaeologist

Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti (born 27 April 1941) is an Indian archaeologist, Professor Emeritus of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University, and a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. He i ...

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 Rewa is a city in north-eastern part of Madhya Pradesh state in India. It is the administrative center of Rewa District and Rewa Division. The city lies about northeast of the state capital Bhopal and north of the city of Jabalpur. The maxim ...

History

The Cedī tribe was mentioned in the , where their king Caidya is praised in a ("praise of gift") at the end of a hymn. 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 Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

text, the , listed it as one of the s ("sixteen great states").

Location

History

References

Further reading