Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c7.4

v1.c7.4

Again, Pāṇini, to whom certain Orientalists assign a date somewhere about the sixth century before Christ, mentions in one of his grammatical aphorisms (v. 3,99) that "likenesses not to be sold but used for the purpose of livelihood do not take the termination *kan*." The word he uses to denote an image in a nearly preceding (v. 6, 96) aphorism is *pratikṛiti*, the literal meaning whereof is anything made after an original. Commentators on this aphorism understand these unsellable reproductions to be divine images. Evidently then, there were images of gods and goddesses in the days of Pāṇini, which were apparently not sold in the bazaars, but were, nevertheless, used for the purpose of making a living. This would indicate that the possessors of these images were able to utilise them as religious objects which were so sacred as to justify the gift of alms to those who owned and exhibited them. Finally, images of gods, as they laugh, cry, sing, dance, perspire, crack and so forth are mentioned in the *Adbhuta-Brāhmaṇa*, which is the last of the six chapters of the *Shaḍviṁśa-Brāhmaṇa*, a supplement to the *Pañchaviṁśa-Brāhmaṇa*.[*]