India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c7.s5.19

c7.s5.19

Of the pair of names ending in *vaktra*, Sindhu-vaktra clearly refers to the Indus Delta in lower Sindh depending for its irrigation on that river, and therefore a *nadīmātṛika* region. Opposed to it were the *deva-mātṛika* tracts of Baluchistan where the parched soil depends for irrigation on whatever it gets as scanty rainfall. The country was therefore called Indra-vaktra as opposed to Sindhu-vaktra. The Mahābhārata mentions the exact nature and location of these two regions (Sabhāparva, 51.11-12), the agricultural produce in one being called *Indrakṛishṭa* and in the other *nadīmukha* (*Indrakṛishṭair-vartayanti dhānyair-ye cha nadīmukhaiḥ*). The former lay across the river Indus (*Pāre-Sindhu*, Sabhā., 51.11); and comprised the peoples of Kej-Makran named *Kitavāḥ* (=Kej), *Pāradāḥ* (=Hingulaj) and *Vairāmāḥ* (=Rambakia of Alexander's historians; Sabhāparva, 51.12).