India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.44

c10.s1.44

There were two other kinds of *parishads*, viz. social and administrative. The term *pārishadya*, for a member of a *parishad* (*parishadaṁ samavaiti*, IV.4.44) indicates that the *parishad* was a social or a cultural club, something like a *samāja*. The third kind of *Parishad* was an administrative body, as in the expression *parishadadvalo rājā* (V.2.112), 'a king governing with his council of ministers The term *pārishadya*, one eligible (*sādhu*) for membership of a *parishad* (*Parishado ṇyaḥ*, IV.4.101) takes the *parishad* in the sense of an administrative body. The fact remains that originally the *parishad* began as a body of scholars inside the Vedic schools, which influenced and directed their literary activities and helped in the evolution of those schools.