India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.58

c10.s1.58

(9) *The Charaṇa as a Saṅgha*—The *Charaṇas* were organized as autonomous bodies making their own rules and regulations as an expression of the democratic ideal in the sphere of learning and education and adopting the method and procedure of the *Saṅghas* in their management. Pāṇini cites the specific instance of the *saṅgha* of students studying the Vedic text of the teacher *Śākala*, and thence called Śākala or Śākalaka (*Śākalād-vā*, IV.3.128; *Śākalena proktam adhīyate Śākalāḥ*; *teshāṁ saṅghaḥ*). It is obvious that the Śākalas, as also other *Charaṇas*, possessed an individual entity for social, economic or organised life in particular. This is illustrated by the fact that the name *Śākala* was also applied to the legend (*aṅka*) and the emblem or heraldic symbol (*lakshaṇa*) adopted by the School on their reals and documents; the same word also denoted their separate settlement or campus (*ghosha*).²