India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s4.5

c7.s4.5

³ *Gandhāra.* Pāṇini mentions both the Vedic form Gāndhāri as the name of the *janapada* and its people in *sūtra* IV.1.169, and its later form Gandhāra in the *gaṇas* to IV.2.133 and IV.3.93. Gandhāra extended from the Kābul Valley to Takshaśilā. Two towns of Gandhāra are mentioned, *viz.* Takshaśilā, its eastern capital, and Pushkalāvatī, the western. The latter occurs in a *gaṇa* as the name of a river on which the town stood. The Greeks refer to it as Peucelaotes (modern Charsadda, situated near the junction of the Swat with the Kābul). The Pushkalas of the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* must be the people of this region. The country between the rivers Suvāstu and Gaurī was known as Uḍḍiyāna which Kātyāyana mentions as Aurḍāyana (*Bhāshya*, IV.2.99; II.292). It was considered in ancient days a part of Gandhāra. A special variety of blankets known as *pāṇḍu-kambala* (IV.2.11) was a product of Gandhāra. Gandhāra is also known to the *Atharvaveda* for its wool.