India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s5.1

c7.s5.1

The units of settlement comprised (1) *nagara* (town) (2) *grāma* (village) (3) *ghosha* (abode of herdsmen (VI.2.85) and (4) *kheṭa* (hamlets, VI.2.126). Pāṇini mentions separately the villages and towns of Eastern India (*Prāchām grāma-nagarāṇām*, VII.3.14), but with reference to Vāhīka and Udīchya country he uses the term *grāma* in a generic sense to include all centres of population (IV.2.117 and IV.2.109). Patañjali in commenting on the distinctions between the terms *grāma* and *pura* remarks that these should not be settled by rules of grammar but by local usage (*tatrāti-nirbandho na lābhaḥ*, III.321).