India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s3.9

c7.s3.9

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.