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India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s3: Section 3. Mountains, Rivers and Forests

India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī c7.s3

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Section 3. Mountains, Rivers and Forests

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Pāṇini shows knowledge of the mountainous regions called Himālaya, with its perpetual snow (*himānī*, IV.1.49), its melting (*hima-śratha*, IV.4.29), uplands (*adhityakā*) and lowlands (*upatyakā*, V.2.34). In this connection the expressions Antargiri and Upagiri (with variant forms Antargiram and Upagiram, according to the opinion of *āchārya* Senaka, V.4.112) are especially noteworthy as proper names also known to the *Mahābhārata*, the former signifying Himālaya proper (Antargiri—'Heart of Himālaya'), same as Pāli Mahāhimavant or the Great Central Himālaya including its highest peaks, such as Gaurīśaṅkara, Nandādevī, Kedāranātha, etc., and the latter the sub-Himālayan region of low-lying peaks (Pāli Chulla-Himavant). The *Mahābhārata* also adds Bahirgiri, signifying the outlying region of the Tarāi (Sabhā., 27.3).

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Pāṇini mentions some particular hills: (1) Tri-kakut (V.4.147) so-called from its three peaks, a name first used in the *Atharvaveda* as the source of a salve (*añjana*), which may be identified with the Sulaiman mountain, famous as the source of antimony all over the Punjab and Sind (probably same as Sauvīrāñjana; cf. *Vedic Index*, I.329); (2) Vidūra (IV.3.84) as the source of the precious stone called *vaidūrya*, cat's eye, which according to Patañjali was quarried at Vālavāya and treated by the lapidaries in Vidūra, probably Bidar (cf. Pargiter, *Mārk.*, p. 365, for Vaidūrya as Satpura); (3) Kiṁśulakā-giri (VI.3.117), to which the *Gaṇapāṭha* adds five more names, viz., Śālvakāgiri, Añjanāgiri Bhañjanāgiri Lohitāgiri, Kukkuṭāgiri.

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These six names seem to be taken from some *Bhuvaṅkosha* list, giving in order the ranges on the western frontiers from Afghanistan to Baluchistan.

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Starting from below, Śālvakāgiri is phonetically the name of Hālā Range lying north-south between Sind and Baluchistan. To the west of it is the Makran chain of hills, the home of the Hiṅgulā river and Hiṅgulāja goddess. Hiṅgulā seems to be the Prakrit form of Kiṁśulakā. It was also called by its synonymous name, the Pārada country, Pardene of classical writers, corresponding to *Pārdāyana* of Patañjali (IV.2.99). Goddess Hiṅgulā of this place is of vermilion colour, also called Dadhiparṇī, because of its association with the ancient Scythian tribes of Dahae and Parnians. It was worshipped also as Nānī, or Nanā of antiquity.

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The next great range is that of Sulaiman mountains which as the source of a famous salve was rightly celebrated as Añjanāgiri. With the other two ranges of Ṭobā Kākaṛ and Shingar to the west of it, Sulaiman with its triple chain was rightly called Trikakut which seems to have been its Vedic name (*Atharva.*, IV.9.8), also recorded by Pāṇini (V.4.147).

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The next step lands us into Afghanistan. Here we have two conspicuous mountainous ranges, *viz.*, one in the northeast of Kabul called Hindukush and the other to the south-west of Kabul called Koh-i-Bābā. The old name of Hindukush was Lohitāgiri (cf. *Kāśikā* on IV.3.91 where the military highlanders of Rohitagiri are referred), from which Afghanistan in medieval geography was called Roha (*Ling. Survey of India*, X, p.5). In the route of Arjuna's conquest we read of Lohita with its ten tribes after Kashmir (Sabhā., 27.17). This can apply only to Hindukush and its martial tribes occupying the valleys of Kohistan-Kafiristan.

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Sandwitched between the Sulaiman (Trikakut) and the Hindukush (Rohitagiri) we find a little to the west the Koh-i-Bābā range which acts as the central watershed for the dispersal of waters to the south, west, north and east. A glance at the map of Afghanistan points to it most probably as being the Bhañjanā-giri.

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The last name Kukkuṭā-giri seems to represent the comparatively low peaks in the west of Afghanistan towards Herat which in Iranian geograhy were called *Uparisaena*, "The Falcon's Perch", and by the classical writers Paropamisus, with special reference to their low height.

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In *sūtra* IV.3.91 Pāṇini mentions peoples who lived by the profession of arms and were settled in hilly regions (*Āyudha-jīvibhyaśchhaḥ parvate*). Hṛidgola, Andhakavarta and Rohitagiri are mentioned as names of particular hills occupied by these military Highlanders. The mention of Rohitgiri suggests their identification with the mountainous tracts in Afghanistan known as Rōha, the Tribal Area which is still the recruiting ground of good soldiery. In the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* the home of the Highlanders (*Parvatāśrayiṇaḥ*, 57.56) is placed in the region of Nihāra or Jalalabad (for which the *Vāyu* gives the true reading Nagarahāra; Pargiter, *Mar. P.*, p. 345). It may be added that Patañjali gives several new names of mountain-dwellers, of which Mālāvāt (II.287) is noteworthy as corresponding to Malākand, the mountainous district north of Dargai, the home of the Dārgalas in the country south of the Swat river.

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*FORESTS*—Several names of forests are mentioned in *sūtras* VIII.4.4-5. Of these the five names enumerated in the first *sūtra* occur also in the *Kōṭarādi gaṇa* giving a list of forest names (VI.3.117). Of these the Puragāvaṇa seems to be connected with Pāṭaliputra as the *Gaṇaratnamahōdadhi* associates the Yakshī Puragā with Pāṭaliputra (verse 291). Miśrakāvaṇa appears to be the name of the well-known forest of Misrikh in Sitapur district. The Pāli literature, however, makes Missaka a mythical forest of the Tāvatiṁsa heaven (*Jātaka*, VI.278; *Dict. Pāli Proper Names*). The other names, *i.e.* Sidhrakā-, Sārikā-, Koṭarā- and Agrevaṇa are unidentified. Similarly names like Śaravaṇa, Ikshuvaṇa, Plakshavaṇa, Āmravaṇa, Kārshya-vaṇa, Khadiravaṇa and Piyūkshābaṇa included in *sūtra* VIII.4.5 cannot be definitely identified since Pāṇini takes them both as proper and common names. Some of these proper names are known in Pāli works; they may not have been big forests but mere groves of trees situated in the vicinity of big towns. For example, Khadiravaṇa occurs in the *Aṅguttara Nikāya* as the birth-place of the teacher Revata who was the foremost of the forest recluses and called Khadiravaṇīya after the place of his birth. Similarly Śaravaṇa is said to have been a settlement in the neighbourhood of Śrāvastī, where another great teacher Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta was born. Āmravaṇa is said to have been attached to the city of Rājagṛiha, and also Kāmpilya.

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Forests of herbs and big trees (*Vibhāshaushadhi-vanaspati-bhyaḥ*, VII.4.6) and those reserved for the grazing of cattle (*goshpada*, VI.1.145; *āśītaṁ-gavīna araṇya*, V.4.7) are also mentioned.

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*RIVERS*—On the north-west frontier Pāṇini mentions the river Suvāstu (IV.2.77; Swat). This river with its tributary the Gaurī (mod. Panjkora) flowed through Gandhāra of which the upper part was known as Uḍḍiyāna, famous for its blankets called *pāṇḍu-kambala*, mentioned by Pāṇini (IV.2.11). The western capital of Gandhāra was Pushkalāvatī which is identified with modern Charsadda a little above the junction of the Swat with the Kābul river. The *Kāśikā* mentions Pushkarāvatī as the name of a river in three *sūtras* (IV.2.85; VI.1.219; VI.3.119) along with certain other names as Udum-barāvatī, Vīraṇāvatī, Maśakāvatī. Of these Maśakāvatī seems to be identical with the name of the river on which Massaga or Massaka, capital of the warlike people known as the Aśvakāyanas was situated. It is possible that Pushkalāvatī and Maśakāvatī were the designation of only those particular portions of the river Swat where it flowed past by these two great towns of Gandhāra in the south and north respectively. It may be added that Patañjali mentions Udumbarāvatī, Maśakāvatī, Ikshumatī and Drumati definitely as names of rivers (II.287). Of these Udumbarāvatī may have flowed through the country of the Audumbaras, and Ikshumatī (also included in the Madhvādi group, IV.2.86) is identical with a tributary of the Ganges referred to as Oxymagis by Arrian and now known as Īkhan (also Kālindī) flowing through Farrukhabad district.

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The next great river mentioned in the north-west is the Sindhu after which the country to its east was named Sindhu, the present Sind-Sagar Doab (IV.3.93). Taking its rise from the snows of western Kailāsa in Tibet, the Sindhu first flows north-west for about half of its length, and then reaching the Darad country in the north-west of Kashmīr and south of Little Pamīr it takes a southward course along which lay its most famous places. A geographical feature of the Indus descending from the defiles of Dardistan is expressed in the grammatical formation *Dāradī Sindhuḥ*, naming it after its immediate source (*Prabhavati*, IV.3.83). Emerging from the Darad highlands the river enters the Gandhāra country with Swat or Uḍḍiyāna on its right and the ancient *janapada* of Uraśā (mod. Hazara in N.W.F.P.) on its left until it receives its most important western tributary the Kabul river at Ohind, a few miles north of Attock where it is at present crossed by a bridge. Ohind was the ancient Udbhāṇḍa, the place of transhipment of goods across the Sindhu and the spot where the great northern trade-route called Uttarapatha in *sūtra* V.1.77 crossed the river. Pāṇini's own birth-place, Śalātura was a riparian town of the Indus situated at a distance of only about four miles from Ohind in the angle of the Kubhā and the Sindhu. About sixty miles east of Ubhāṇḍa was Takshaśilā, the eastern capital of Gandhāra, and at an equal distance to the west was Pushkalāvatī (mod. Charsadda), its western capital. The trans-Indus country was known in ancient times as *Pāre-Sindhu* (*Sabhāparva*, 51-11). Its famous breed of mares imported into India is mentioned by Pāṇini as *Pāre-vaḍavā*, 'the mare from beyond the border' (VI.2.42).

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Varṇu, corresponding to Bannu on the other side of the river is mentioned in a *sūtra*, and also *Gaṇa-pāṭha*. The Bannu valley is drained by the rivers Kurram (Vedic Krumu) and the Gambila or Tochi which unite and flow into the Indus. The *Kāśikā* commenting on *sūtra* IV.2.103 speaks of Varṇu *deśa* named after the river Varṇu (*Varṇur-nāma nadas-tat-samīpo deśo Varṇuḥ*). It appears that the Kurram river after it left the Kurram Agency and from the point where it enters the Bannu valley was named Varṇu in ancient days. The place situated in proximity to Varṇu is mentioned as Vārṇava (IV.2.77, *gaṇa Suvāstvādi*). Although Bannu (Edwardesabad) is a modern town founded only in 1848, the valley after which the town was named is mentioned in ancient texts. Opposite Varṇu, across the river, was situated the famous Kekaya *janapada* mentioned in *sūtra* VII.3.2, comprising parts of the three modern districts Jhelum, Gujrat and Shahpur, adjoining which lay the Salt Range (Saindhava). To south of Kekaya was situated the Sindhu *janapada* lying north to south between the rivers Jhelum and Indus. Along the lowermost course of the river Sindhu was situated the ancient Sauvīra *janapada* (IV.1.148), now known as Sind.

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Of the rivers of the Punjab, Pāṇini mentions Vipāś (Beās) and the wells dug on its north side (*Udak cha Vipāśaḥ*, IV.2.74). The northern wells were more stable as being on high and dry ground than those on the other side and the former were therefore distinguished by the peculiar accent on their names.

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Pāṇini names two other rivers, Bhidya and Uddhya (*Bhidy-ōddhyau nade*, III. 1. 115). Uddhya is the same as Ujh flowing through Jasrota district and falling into the Rāvī (*Imperial Gazetteer of India*, Vol. XV, p. 73; located to the north-west of Mādhopur on the Rāvī, p. 107). On Pāṇini II.4.7 the *Kāśikā* illustrating the compound names of two rivers cites the example *Uddhy-Erāvatī*, that is Uddhya and Irāvatī, the former of which we must consider as a tributary of the latter on the analogy of *Gaṅgā-Śoṇam*, another example of the same rule, and of the counter-example *Gaṅgā-Yamune*. Bhidya may be identified with a river named Baī, rising in Jammu about 15 miles to the west of Ujh, and flowing into the Rāvī in the Gurdaspur district. The names Uddhya and Bhidya suggest that they dried up in summer but flowed in torrents in the rains, as indicated by Kālidāsa who describes their brisk and wayward movements as those of lusty youths like Rāma and Lakshamaṇa (*Raghuvaṁśa*, XI.8).

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*DEVIKĀ*—Pāṇini also mentions the river Devikā and what grew on its bank (*Dāvikā-kūla*, VII. 31.1), which Patañjali describes to be *śāli* rice (III. 316). Pargiter rightly identified it with the river Deg (*Mārk. Purāṇa*, p. 292). According to the *Vishṇudharmottara Purāṇa* (I.67.15) the Devikā flowed through the Madra country, and joined the Ravi according to the *Vāmana* (ch. 84). Rising in the Jammu hills, the Deg flows through Sialkot and Sheikhupura districts and joins the Ravi. In each rainy season it deposits on its banks layers of rich alluvium soil which produce rice of fine quality that are famous all over the Punjab and exported from Muridke and Kamoke towns. (cf. Jagannath Agarwal, On the Identification of the Devikā, *JUPHS*, 1944, Pt. II, pp. 76-79).

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Pāṇini mentions another river Ajiravatī (VI.3.119) the Achiravatī of Pāli texts (modern Rapti) on which stood Srāvastī. The next river mentioned in this region is Sarayū (VI.4.174) of which the Rapti is a tributary. It may be noted that Sarayū was also the name of a river in remote Ṛigvedic India flowing past Herat (derived from Hari-Rūd; cf. Old-Persian Harayū from Vedic Sarayū). Darius I (516 B.C.) in his inscription mentions *Haraiva*, the people of Harayū, equal to Pāṇini’s *Sārava*. In the Elamite version of the Behistun inscription occurs the name Arriya (=Haraiva=Gk. Aria with its capital at Heart).

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Another river Rathaspā is mentioned in the *Gaṇa-pāṭha* to *sūtra* VI.1.157 (*Bhāshya*, III. 96, *Rathaspā nadī*). This name occurs in the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa* (Caland, *JB.*, Extract 204) and in the Ādiparva (172.20) where it is one of the seven sacred rivers between Sarasvatī on the one side and Gaṇḍakī on the other. Most probably it was a river of Pañchāla and the name may correspond to Rhodopha which is mentioned by the Greek writers as marking an important stage on the great royal road from the frontier to Pāṭaliputra. Rhodopha is stated there to be 119 miles from the Gaṅgā; although it is called a town but the mention of the stages generally between two well-known rivers as Jhelum and Beās, Sutlej and Jamna, suggests its having been the name of a river (*Megasthenes*, Fragm. LVI; Rawlinson *Intercourse between India and the Western World*, p. 64). the distance of 119 miles lands us on the banks of the Rāmaganṅgā which is the only big river between the Gaṅgā and the Sarayū to present difficulties of crossing so as to merit the name Rathasthā, given to it in the Vedic period, and which is still in its upper course known as Ruhut or Ruput (*Imp. Gazetteer, U. P.*, I.166). The distances from Hastināpur on the Gaṅgā to Bareilly on the Rāmaganṅgā, and from Bareilly to Kanauj where the Rāmaganṅgā falls into the Gaṅgā, are equal to the stages of the Royal Road mentioned by Megasthenes from the Gaṅgā at Hastināpura to the town of Callinipaxa identified with Kanauj as the river Kālindī joins the Gaṅgā near it.

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Rathaspā or Rathasthā as the name of a river occurs as an independent *sūtra* in the *Ṛiktantra Prātiśākhya* (*sūtra* 209).

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Śarāvatī is mentioned in *sūtra* VI.3.120 (*Śarādīnām cha*). Several rivers lay claim to this name (cf. Dey's *Geog. Dict.*), the most famous one was that which separated the Udīchya from the Prāchya country already noted.

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Of the rivers of Central India (now Vindhya-Pradeśa) Pāṇini mentions Charmaṇvatī (Chambal, VIII.2.12).

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Pāṇini uses the term Rumaṇvat, which the *Kāśikā* connects with a place producing salt (*Lavaṇa-śabdasya rumaṇa-bhāvo nipātyate*). The form Rumaṇvat may have been based on the name Rumā, a river or lake in the district of Sambhar in Ajmer which is also the source of the river Lūnī.

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DESERT REGIONS—Pāṇini mentions a desert region as *dhanva* (IV.2.121), of which two examples are cited by Patañjali, *viz.* Pāre-Dhanva and Ashṭaka (II.298), and another by the *Kāśikā* as Airāvata. Pāre-dhanva literally means 'across the desert,' which seems to refer to the region called Thar-Parkar to the west of the Marusthala desert of Rajasthan. Āshṭaka-dhanva seems to be the name of the desert region of the Attock district which is called Dhanni, probably from *dhanva*. East Gandhāra included the desert of Attock and the hilly tracts of Rawalpindi called Pṛith *janapada*, both of which are preserved in the joint name Dhanni-Pothowar. The Bhīshma-parva (VI. 7) places Airāvata-varsha beyond the Sītā or Yarkand river in Chinese Turkestan where we may look for Airāvata Dhanva in the desert regions of Central Asia.

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