India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s6.22

c12.s6.22

¹ *Vṛika* (V.3.115). An individual member of this *Saṅgha* was called Vārkeṇya, and the whole *Saṅgha* Vṛika. This name standing alone in the *sūtra* with a suffix peculiar from the rest is hitherto untraced. It is stated to be *āyudhajīvin*, but not necessarily associated with Vāhīka. It should probably be identified with Varkaṇa, the Old-Persian form in the Behistun inscription of Darius, mentioned along with Pārthava or the Parthians (*Behistun Ins.*, Col. II.1.16). There is a striking similarity between the Sanskrit and Old-Persian forms of the name, *e.g.* Vārkeṇya equal to Vārkaṇa in the singular number, and Vṛikāḥ equal to Varkā in the plural as in the expression *Sakā Hauma-Varkā*. The country of the Vṛikas seems to have