India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s6.40

c12.s6.40

(3) *Piśācha*, literally a people who were consumers of raw flesh. Grierson has conclusively shown that the inhabitants of the North-Western Frontier, *i.e.*, of Gilgit, Chitral and Kafiristan, were of Piśācha tribe, where cannibalism, eating raw flesh, once prevailed and he also observes that in the south of the Kafir country, round about Laghman, are the Pashai Kafirs whom Dr. Hoernle proposed to identify with Piśācha as a phonetically sound equation (Piśācha, *J.R.A.S.*, 1950, pp. 285-88). Discussing the question "Who were the Piśāchas?", he comes to the conclusion that they were originally a real people, probably of Aryan origin, who inhabited the north-west of India and the neighbouring parts of the Himalayas, and were closely connected with the Khaśas, Nāgas, and Yakshas. Pargiter agreeing with Grierson's identification of the Piśāchas has observed that 'there can be no reasonable doubt that their character as demons or goblins was a later perversion of their real nature' (*J.R.A.S.*, 1912, p. 712). The existence of the Paiśāchī Prakrit is so well attested to by literary references that there can be no reasonable doubt about its speakers being real human beings.