India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s3.16

c9.s3.16

*TRADE ROUTES*—As already stated Pāṇini mentions roads leading from one city to another (*Tad-gachchhati pathi-dūtayoh*, IV.3.85), and marked into well-defined stages (see illustration on *sūtra*, III.3.136). Katyāyana mentions different kinds of trade routes, as through forests (*kāntārapatha*), jungle-thickets *jaṅgalapatha*), on land (*sthala-patha*), and in water (*vāripatha*). The goods gathered (*ābhṛita*) and transported along these routes were called after the route, *e.g.* *kāntāra-pathika*, goods coming by way of the forest. The *kāntāra-patha* seems to be the name of the route across the Vindhya forests which, as we know from Buddhist literature, connected Kośāmbī with Pratishṭhāna and Bharukachchha. *Ajapatha* (goat-track) and *śaṅkupatha* (precipitous route negotiated by spikes) were narrow pathways in mountainous regions (*vārttika* on V. 1. 77; *Bhāshya*, II. 358).