India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s9.3

c8.s9.3

*HOUSES*—The Vedic word for home was *gṛiha*. Pāṇini also uses the term *gṛiha* (III.1.144) which the *Kāśikā* explains as *veśma* or homestead, or as the women in residence there (*tātsthyād-dārāścha*), implying that the women constituted principally the household. Three other terms were also used, *viz.* *geha* (III.1.144), *agāra* (III.3.79) and *kshaya* (VI.1.201; cf. Sabhāparva, 33.16, *ajāyata Yādukshaye*, Kṛishṇa born in the house of Yadu). *Agāra* occurs once in the *Kaushītaki Upanishad* (*Vedic Index*, 1.7).