India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s1.2

c7.s1.2

The answer to this may be understood in this way. Place-names form an integral part of language which it is the object of grammar to discuss and regulate. The analysis which Pāṇini has given of the underlying meanings which relate names of places to social life and background, shows conclusively that such names do not originate by mere accident, but are the outcome of social and historical conditions with which a people are intimately connected. These conditions are reflected in language in the geographical names. An etymological approach to the place-names of a country reveals to us many a forgotten chapter of history and settlement on land, and the contribution that Pāṇini makes in this respect through his grammatical expositions possesses abiding historical value. He has given a list of endings of place-names by which geographical places are classified. Most of the names of the geographical places originate, as he points out, from one or the other of the following factors: