India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.27

c6.27

*THE DAKSHAS, A NORTHERN PEOPLE*—The Dakshas are referred to as a clan organised into *saṅgha* as is apparent from the following examples in the *Kāśikā*: *Dākshaḥ saṅghaḥ*, *Dākshaḥ aṅkaḥ*, *Dākshaṁ lakshaṇam* (IV. 3. 127). It also refers to a settlement of the Dakshas (*Dāksho ghoshaḥ*, IV.3.127), and as examples of the names of their villages are cited *Dākshi-kūla* and *Dākshi-karsha* (VI. 2. 129), seemingly old illustrations, since Patañjali likewise mentions *Dākshi-karshu* as the name of a village of which a resident was called *Dākshikarshuka* (IV. 2. 104; II. 294). That the Dakshas belonged to the north-west is suggested by the *Kāśikā's* discussion on *Saṁjñāyāṁ kanthośīnareshu* (II. 4. 20), citing a counter-example to show that the place named Dākshi-kanthā lay outside the geographical limits of Uśīnara. According to Pāṇini Uśīnara formed part of Vāhīka (IV. 2. 117, 118). That the Dakshas did not belong to the eastern part of India either is shown by another comment (*Kāśikā* on IV. 2. 113), where it is said that the Dakshas lived outside the Prāchya-Bharata region, i.e., towards the west. Patañjali's interpretation of Prāchya-Bharata on Pāṇini II. 4. 66 shows that the Prāchya country or eastern India began from the region of Bharata or Kuru-*janapada* (I. 493). Strictly speaking the Bharatas although residing in east Panjab were considered to form part of the Prāchyas. Thus proceeding from east to west we encounter the chain of the Prāchyas, Bharatas (region of Kurukshetra), Uśīnaras, Madras and Udīchyas. The *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa* mentions the Udīchyas with the Madras (*Gopatha*, I.2.10), and the two jointly formed Vāhīka. The Dakshas, as shown by the *Kāśikā*, lived outside the Prāchya country, outside the Bharata-*janapada*, and outside the Uśīnara land which was in Vāhīka, and have therefore to be located towards further west, some-where in Gandhāra. This lends support to the tradition that Pāṇini of the Daksha *gotra* was born at Śalātura, which lay a few miles to the north of the confluence of the Kabul with the Indus river. The area once occupied by the Dākshis may probably have been somewhere in the lower valley of the Kabul river, between Dakka and the present site of Śalātura.