India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s12.12

c8.s12.12

RUNNING FOOTMEN—In *sūtra* VIII.³.75, Pāṇini states that the word-form *pariskanda* is current in the usage of the eastern people and of the Bharata *janapada*.¹ It implies that in the idiom of the Udīchyas it was called *parishkanda* (cerebralised form), which occurs five times in the Vrātya hymn of the *Atharvaveda*. *Pariskanda* denoted running foot-soldiers one on each side of a war-chariot (*Vedic Index*, I.497)², who are referred to as *chakra-raksha* in the Bhīshmaparva (18.16).