Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c13.26

c13.26

§ 34. Further, Pāṇini says that these republics were situated in the Vāhīka Country. Now, what was the Vāhīka Country? It has been already realized that the people Vāhīkas mentioned in the Mahā-Bhārata were in the Punjab.¹ But the significance of the word *Vāhīka* has not yet been considered. I think the word *Vāhīka* means 'the country of the rivers,'² and as such, the Vāhīka-land would comprise the Sind velley and the Punjab. These are exactly the limits given in the Mahā-Bhārata: ('the 'Vahīkas) that live in the valleys of the five rivers and in that 'of the Sindhu as the sixth.'³ From the known history of some of the Vāhīka republics of the grammar, we can say that the Vāhīka land did include Sind. For instance, the Kshudrakas and the Mālavas were partially in Sind.⁴ The Kāśikā puts them amongst the illustrations of the Vāhīka-Saṁghas.⁵ The Vāhīka country was 'away from the Himalayas,' *i.e.*, it did not include the mountain districts.⁶ [The Six Trigarttas were at the foot of the Himalayas in the Punjab, about Jammu or Kangra.]