Who Are Vidyādhara ?

Putting together what we can assemble from the Jaina Rāmāyaṇa and the Bṛhatkathā, we can roughly locate the vidyādhara territory on either side of the Vindhya, probably more towards the east, rather than the west : the eastern Indo-Gangetic plain with its counterpart in the Deccan across the Narmada. Our interest in the Vidyādhara lies in the light it could throw on the interaction of the Indo-Gangetic kshatriya with the vaḍukar ? That is what we expect Rāmāyaṇa to help us in. The time is appropriate : the beginnings of the Common Era. That is when perhaps the kshatriya, with or without the brāmhaṇa, entered into a major encounter with the vaḍukar, the inhabitants of the middle India.