India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.53

c10.s1.53

(5) *Fellowship*—Fellow students belonging to the same *Charaṇa* as their *alma mater* were called *sa-Brahmachārins* (*Charaṇe Brahmachāriṇi*, VI.3.86). Academic fellowship had a social significance. Yājñavalkya refers to the custom of entering the name of a person's *Charaṇa* in legal documents. Patañjali has the following query: '*Kiṁ-sabrahmachārī tvam?*', 'From which School are you?', implying that a student was known by the school from which he graduated and also in association with other fellows of the same school. This query, he says, may be put in three possible ways: (1) Who were fellows of the same school? (*ke sabrahmachāriṇaḥ*); (2) Whose fellow-student are you? (*keshāṁ sabrahmachārī*); (3) Who was your fellow-student? (*kaḥ sabrahmachārī tava*, II.2.24; I.425). These queries bring out the relative academic distinctions of students in life.