Madra

Madra, Mada or Madraka is the name of an ancient region and its inhabitants, located in the north-west division of the ancient Indian sub-continent. The kingdom or area where these people are believed to have inhabited is thought to have extended from portions of the Hindu Kush (possibly as far as North Eastern Iran) to the present day Punjab and Haryana province of India. Some support for this belief lays within the Mahabharata that describes the armies of the Madra Kingdom marching from ancient Northwest Punjab to what would be known today as Haryana. The Madra are numerously referenced in ancient Sanskrit and Pali literature and some scholarly work references them as being part of the Kshatriya group during the time of the Mahabharata. Recent scholarly work references the Madra kingdom existing for at least two thousand years and places its home between the Ravi and Chenab.