India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s4.8

c8.s4.8

*CIVIC STATUS OF WOMEN*—Women were distinguished as members of larger associations than the family. They were known by the *gotras* and the *janapadas* or States to which they belonged, *e.g.* *Avantī* (the lady of Avanti *Janapada*), *Kuntī* (of Kunti), *Kurū* (of Kuru) (IV. 1. 176); *Bhārgī* (of Bharga *Janapada*, a part of the Trigarta country), *Yaudheyī* (a woman of the well-known Yaudheya republic); and similarly *Pāñchālī*, *Vaidehī*, *Āṅgī*, *Vāṅgī*, *Māgadhī*, hailing from those Eastern *janapadas* implied in the *sūtra* (IV.1.178). The *Gaṇapāṭha* adds other names, such as Kārūshī, Kaikeyī, Kaśmīrī, Sālvī, Śaubhreyī, Śaukreyī, Bhāratī, Auśīnari, etc. It is also laid down that female names in the plural derived from *gotra* and *janapada* should be distinguished in their formation from those of the male members, and this distinction was brought out by retaining the female-denoting suffix, *e.g.* a bevy of women of Yaska *gotra* was named as *Yāskyaḥ* (II.4.63) and Aṅga women as *Āṅgyaḥ* (II.4.62). A peculiarity in the names of women in the eastern country was the addition of the suffix *āyana* (IV.1.17), *e.g.* a female descendant of the Garga *gotra* was called *Gārgyāyaṇī* in the east corresponding to modern Gargāin, a feature preserved specially in the Bhojpuri dialect.