Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.593

c6.593

Pañcāladeśa.—It comprised Bareilly, Budaun, Farrukhabad and the adjoining districts of Rohilkhand and the Central Doab in the U.P. It seems to have been bounded on the east by the Gumti and on the south by the Chambal. It extended from the Himalaya mountains to the Chambal river (Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 360). In the later Vedic saṃhitās and the Brāhmaṇas the people of Pañcāla are frequently mentioned (Kāṭhaka-saṃhitā, XXX, 2; Vājasaneyī saṃhitā, XI, 3. 3; Gopatha-Brāhmaṇa, I, 2. 9; Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, XIII, 5. 4. 7; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, I, 8. 4. 1. 2). In the Upaniṣads and later works we find that the Brahmins of Pañcāla took part in philosophical and philological discussions (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, VI, 1. 1; Chāndogya, V, 3. 1; I, 8. 12; Sāṅkhyāyana Śrauta Sūtra, XII, 3. 6, etc.). The Vedic literature refers to the kings of this kingdom (Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, VIII, 23; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, S.B.E., Vol. XLIV, p. 400). Pāṇini mentions Pāñcālaka in his Aṣṭādhyāyī (7. 3. 13). Patañjali in his Mahābhāṣya (1. 2. 2, p. 512; 1. 1. 1, p. 37; 1. 4. 1, p. 634) also mentions it as a janapada.