Tribes in Ancient India c15.13

c15.13

This passage states that the Vāhīkas were also known as Jarttikas (= Jāt?) and Āraṭṭas,⁴ and that their capital was at Śākala,⁵ modern Sialkot, west of the Rāvi. Another portion of the same passage suggests that in the Āraṭṭa countries religion was in disrepute; it was thus an impure region, and the Aryans of Mid-India were forbidden to go there. This is also reflected in the Vārttikas of Pāṇini by Kātyāyana who derives the word Vāhīka from ‘vahi’ or ‘bahi’, meaning ‘outside’,—suggesting those who were outside the pale of Aryandom. According to Pāṇini and his scholiast Patañjali, Vāhīka was another name for the Punjab (IV, 2, 117; V, 3, 114;