India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c13.s1.3

c13.s1.3

*BOUNDARIES*—In Greece the city-states were scattered mostly amongst hills and valleys and separated by well-defined boundaries. In India also the *Janapadas* had demarcated boundaries to which Pāṇini refers as *tadavadhi* (IV.2.124). The *Kāśikā* observes that other *Janapadas* formed boundaries of a *Janapada* surrounding it on all sides (*tad-avadbirapi janapada eva gṛihyate*). A chain of *Janapadas* occupied the entire stretch of land, and some of them were big enough to admit of several territorial divisions of which the names are regulated by *sūtras* VI.2.103 and VII.3.12; *e.g.*, the Sindhu divided Pūrva-Gandhāra with capital at Takshaśilā from Apara-Gandhāra with its chief town Pushkalāvatī; similarly Pūrva-Madra, Apara-Madra, and Pūrva-Pañchāla, Uttara-Pañchāla, and Dakshiṇa-Pañchāla.