India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.38

c10.s1.38

*INTELLECTUAL APPROACH*—This mechanical method of learning by rote gives only a limited picture of the educational system. Yāska sounds a note of protest against too much emphasis being laid on mere memorising of words as means of learning, and Patañjali compares it to dry fuel thrown in a place where there is no fire to ignite it¹ (*Bhāshya* I.2.). Pāṇini's own work the *Ashṭādhyāyī* was the result of much hard and scientific thinking applied to the study of words and their significance by analytical methods. The *Nirukta* of Yāska and the grammatical works of Śākaṭāyana and Āpiśali were similar products of the scientific mind. The original treatises produced as a result of creative intellectual activity are distinguished by Pāṇini as *upajñāta* and as being different from the commentaries or expositions (*vyākhyāna*) of older texts.