India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s2.7

c7.s2.7

*DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY*—Udīchya and Prāchya are the two broad divisions of the country mentioned by Pāṇini, and these terms occur in connection with the linguistic forms known to the eastern and northern grammarians. The Udīchya country included Gandhāra and Vāhīka, the latter comprising Madra and Uśīnara, and possibly Trigarta also. The Kuru region in the south-east of the Punjab was contiguous with the Bharata *janapada*. The Bharata region separated the east from the west, as shown by Pāṇini’s reference to Prāchya-Bharata, on which Patañjali remarks that the proper Prāchya country lies outside the sphere of the Bharatas (II.4.66; I.493, *anyatra prāg-grahaṇe Bharata-grahaṇaṁ no bhavati*). The river Śarāvatī mentioned in Pāṇini (VI.3.120) formed according to commentators the boundary between the two divisions of Udīchya and Prāchya. It may probably be identified with the Dṛishadvatī or Chitāṅg flowing through Ambala district.