India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s4.12

c7.s4.12

Śaudrāyaṇa or the Śūdra country is mentioned along with other names in the *gaṇa* Aishukāri (IV.2.54) which denoted names of countries after their peoples (*Vishayo deśe*). Like the Brāhmaṇas, the Śaudrāyaṇas (=Greek *Sodrae*) also are mentioned as having opposed Alexandar. Cunningham treats the present Soḍā Rajputs of south-east Sind around Umarkot as their descendants (*Ancient Geog.*, p. 291). Diodorus couples the *Sodrae* with the *Massanae* as occupying the opposite banks of the Indus. Cunningham equates the *Massanae* with the *Mausarnaioi* of Ptolemy, which name corresponds to the Masūrakarṇa (derivative Mausurakarṇa) of the *Gaṇa-pāṭha* (II.4.49; IV.1.112).