India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.21

c10.s1.21

Pāṇini refers to the working days of the school as *adhyāya* (III.3.122; *adhīyate' sminn-ityadhyāyaḥ*, *Kāśikā*). On this etymology was based the opposite word *anadhyāya* denoting holidays, about which elaborate instructions are given in the *Gṛihya-sūtras*. These rules are anticipated in Pāṇini's *sūtra*, *Adhyāyiny-adeśa-kālāt* (IV.4.71), showing that study was to be suspended outside its time and place. It is significant that Pāṇini should have found it necessary to mention students contravening the proper rules by carrying on their study in unapproved places, on which the *Kāśikā* cites *śmāśānika*, *chātuṣpathika*, 'one who reads in a cremation-ground or a market-place', and on non-working days, *e.g.* *chāturdaśika*, *āmāvāsyika*, *i.e.* studying on *Chaturdaśī* and *Āmāvasyā* days which were set apart for religious purposes like the *Darśa-Paurṇamāsa* and not for study (*Kāśikā* on IV.4.71). The opprobrium implied in these terms lasted only for the time being.