India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s6.21

c12.s6.21

*ĀYUDHAJĪVĪ SAṄGHAS*—Pāṇini mentioned the *āyudhajīvī Saṅghas* by name in *sūtras* V.3.115-17 and in the three *gaṇas* of these *sūtras*, *Dāmanyādi*, *Parśvādi* and *Yaudheyādi*. The chapter opens with a reference to such *Saṅghas* in the Vāhīka country, the cradle-land of martial tribes who cultivated military art as a way of life. Mostly they were Kshatriyas. But *sūtra* V.3.114 (*Āyudhajīvi-saṅghañ-ñyaḍ Vāhīkeshva-Brāhmaṇa-Rājanyāt*) shows that some of them were Brāhmaṇas also, *e.g.* the Gopālavas, and others called Rājanyas, which most likely correspond to those Hill States whose ruling classes designate themselves at present as Rāṇās. The Śālaṅkayanas are stated by the *Kāśikā* to have belonged to the Rājanya class, and they seem to be an ancient community, as even Patañjali mentions them by the name of *Trika* (V.¹.58; II.352), probably on account of their League of Three States (on the analogy of *Shashṭha* as applied to the League of Six Trigartas, V.3.116).