Madra (Sanskrit: Madra) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-western India whose existence is attested since the Iron Age (c.1100–500 BCE).
[2] Several Vedic scholars from the Brāhmaṇa period were from Madra proper, including Śākalya, who was a member of the court of the Vaideha king Janaka, as well as Madragāra Śauṅgāyani, and Uddālaka Āruṇi's teacher Patañchala Kāpya.
[1] During the 6th century BCE, the Madrakas, along with the Kekayas, Uśīnaras, and Sibis, fell under the suzerainty of the Gandhāra kingdom, which was the principal imperial power in north-west Iron Age India.
[5] The Madrakas appear in epic Hindu literature, especially in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata.
In the latter, the wife of the Kuru king Pāṇḍu was a Madraka princess eponymously named Mādrī, after the kingdom which she hailed from.