India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.15

c10.s1.15

Students were also named after the special seasonal courses which they were pursuing. For example, the books that were taken up for study in the *Vasanta* (spring) season were also known as *Vasanta*, and the student who was reading that treatise or course at the assigned time was classed as *Vāsantika* (*Vasantādibhyash-ṭhak*, IV. 2. 63, *vasanta-sahacharito'yaṁ grantho vasantas-tam adhīte*). We learn from the Smṛitis that the *vasanta* session in colleges was inaugurated on the *Vasanta-pañchamī* day in the month of Māgha, and the course mainly consisted of Vedāṅga texts (*Manu*, IV.98). Courses were similarly offered for the other seasons like *Varshā*, *Śarad*, *Hemanta* and *Śiśira*, and the students of these short term courses were then called *Vārshika*, *Śāradika*, *Haimantika* and *Śaiśirika* (*Gaṇa-pāṭha* to IV.2.63). These seem to be planned on the lines of modern Summer schools.