India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s1.18

c8.s1.18

MIXED *CASTES*—Pāṇini uses the terms *anuloma* and *pratiloma* (V.4.75) which are well-known in later Smṛiti texts. The *Ashṭādhyāyī* mentions the names *Ambashṭha* and *Āmbashṭha* (VIII.3.97). These were a republican people in the Panjab. They are taken to be a mixed caste in the Smṛitis, as the offspring of a Brāhmaṇa husband and a Vaiśya wife. Pāṇini also knows of a class of people called *udakahāra* (or *udahāra*, VI.3.60), 'drawer of water,' who may be taken as a caste (Hindi *kahāra*). It may be noted that Kātyāyana knows of a special caste (*jāti*) called *mahāśūdra*, with its female *mahāśūdrī*. The *Kāśikā* explains the term to mean the Ābhīras regarded as higher Śūdras.