India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s1.8

c8.s1.8

*Provincial Distinctions amongst Brāhmaṇas* (JĀNAPADĀKHYĀ). Pāṇini knows of the practice of the Brāhmaṇas being named after the localities (*janapada*) to which they belonged by birth (V.4.104, *Brahmaṇo jānapadākhyāyām*), of which the *Kāśikā* cites the following examples: *Avanti-Brahmaḥ* and *Surāshṭra-Brahmaḥ*, i.e. a Brāhmaṇa of Avanti *janapada*, (modern Malwa), and a Brāhmaṇa of Surāshṭra or Kathiawar. Such names are the precursors of the later terms like Kānyakubja, Sārasvata, Mahārāshṭra and Gurjara Brāhmaṇas.