Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c6.214

c6.214

Another country which was apparently in the Prācya division is Gonarda, implied in the name Gonardīya of one of the predecessors of Vātsyāyana¹. It is doubtful, as we have already pointed out², whether this Gonardīya is the same as the grammarian Gonardīya and Kielhorn is most probably right in holding that the latter cannot be the same person as Patañjali, the author of the Mahābhāṣya³. The country of Gonarda is located by some Indian scholars in Kashmir, and by others in Oudh⁴. The first view has its origin probably in a fancied connection with the Kashmir kings called Gonanda⁵, or rather Gonarda, as they are more correctly styled by Kalhana⁶. There is no reason to think that Gonarda was the Punjab as Mr. N. L. Dey does, because it was conquered by Gonarda of Kashmir⁷. All that we can say with certainty about the location of Gonarda is that it is a country in the Eastern Division of India. The Kāśikā-vṛtti gives the example Gonardīya in illustration of the rule of Pāṇini according to which the suffix 'cha' is aded to names of Prācya countries whose first vowel is 'e' or 'o'⁸. Again, the Matsya-Purāṇa mentions Gonarda as a country in the Prācya or Eastern division along with Prāgjyotiṣa, Puṇḍra, Videha, Tāmralipta, Magadha etc¹.. The same statement is also found in the Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa ². Varāhamihira, however, places Gonarda in the south³ but the location in Eastern India seems to be the correct one,as it is supported by the Kāśikāvṛtti, and its situation near Ayodhyā would tally with this view.