India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s6.8

c12.s6.8

The association of *Pūga* with *Grāmaṇī* in Pāṇini's *sūtra* points to their definite geographical area. We are told in the *Mahābhārata* that the warlike *Grāmaṇīyas*, i.e. clans named after their *grāmaṇīs*, lived on the banks of the Indus and they fought against Nakula in his western campaign (*Sindhu-kūlāśritā ye cha Grāmaṇīyā mahābalāḥ*, Sabhāparva, 32.9). We may thus locate the *Pūga* type of *Saṅghas* organised under *Grāmaṇī* leaders in the tribal area to the west of the Indus. Pāṇini names some of these war-like tribes of the North-West Frontier, *e.g.* Aśani (*Parśvādi* group, V.3.117) perhaps, Shinwāris with their parent-stock of the Kārshbuns, to be identified with Kārshāpaṇas in the same *gaṇa*; the Āprītas or Aparītas (IV.2.53), same as Greek Aparytai, (*Camb. Hist.*, p. 339), modern Afridis. The Pathans are an ancient people, settled in their original homeland, the country of Vedic Pakthas, or Pakteys (country Paktyike) mentioned as being in the north-west of India by Herodotus (*Ved. Ind.*, I. 464), from which Pakhtun is derived. Several ancient Sanskrit names in the *gaṇas* correspond to names of these clans, e.g., the Pavindas (*Aśvādi gaṇa*, IV.1.110) corresponding to modern Powindas settled in the Gomal valley, armed tribesmen formerly occupying the Wana plain (*N.W.F.P. Gaz.*, p. 253), and the Vānavyas (*Naḍādi* group, IV.1.99; people of the Vanāyu country), corresponding to the people of the wide open Wānā Valley in the north of Gomal river.