India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s5.2

c12.s5.2

In this connection *sūtra* IV.1.168, *Janapada-śabdāt kshatriyād-a\~n*, is important. Grammatically it teaches that the affix *a\~n* comes in the sense of a descendant after a word which is both the name of a country and a Kshatriya tribe. Here the identity of the *Janapadas* and the powerful Kshatriya clans settled there is repeated. These ruling Kshatriyas inhabiting the *Janapadas* were, as we are informed by Kātyāyana, governed by two-fold constitutions; some were monarchies and others were Saṅghas or republics (*kshatriyād-ekar\~jāt sa\~ngha-pratishedhārtham*, IV.1.168.1). As monarchical states, Pāṇini mentions the following: Sālveya, Gāndhāri, Magadha, Kaliṅga, Sūramasa, Kosala, Ajāda, Kuru, Sālva, Pratyagratha, Kālakūṭa, Aśmaka, Kamboja, Avanti and Kunti. Besides these names included in the *sūtras*, there might be others which were implied in Pāṇini's rules, of which Pata\~njali mentions Videha, Pa\~nchāla, A\~nga, Dārva, Nīpa, Sauvīra and Ambashṭha, the latter two being mentioned in the *Ashṭādhyāyī* in a different context. The kings who ruled over these *Janapadas* were Kshatriyas, and the same word denoted both a descendant of the Kshatriyas, *i.e.*, a citizen and their king (*Kshatriya-samāna-śabdāt janapadāt tasya rājany-apatyavat*, IV.1.168.3). For example, Pā\~nchāla was the name of a Kshatriya descendent of the Pa\~nchāla tribe and also of the king of that *Janapada*. Similarly, *Pa\~nchālāḥ* in the plural was the name of the country as well as the name of the Kshatriya clan. Although a *Janapada* consisted of other castes also besides the ruling Kshatriya caste, still the political sovereignty was in the hands of the dominant Kshatriya clan who had founded that *Janapada*. This was a fact so patently recognized that Kātyāyana questions the advisability of including the word Kshatriya in *sūtra* IV.1.168. His point is that only the descendants of the ruling Kshatriya tribe were designated by the *apatya*-denoting suffix added after the name of a *Janapada*, (*Kshatriya-grahaṇānarthakye choktam*, IV.1.168.2). Patañjali definitely states that such words as *Kshaudrakya* and *Mālavya* denoted only a member of the Kshatriya caste, and not other sections of the population, such as the labourers or slaves living there (II.269). No doubt, there were Brāhmaṇas and other castes also inhabiting these *Janapadas*, but the political power was centred in the hands of the Kshatriyas, and only in exceptional cases of any other caste.