India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.8

c10.s1.8

*Śrotriya*: Pāṇini defines a *śrotriya* teacher as one who could recite the *Chhandas* or Veda (*Śrotriyaṁś-chhando' dhīte*, V.2.84). He specialized in committing to memory the Vedic texts in the various forms of recitations (*pāṭha*), as *saṁhitā*, *pada*, *krama*, *etc.* The literary apparatus for conserving the Vedic texts without change of a syllable or accent had been perfected several centuries before Pāṇini, who mentions students called *kramaka*, who specilized in memorising the *krama* text (IV.2.61), and *padaka*, the *pada* text of the Vedas. Teachers who instructed such pupils were themselves named after the mode of recitation they had mastered (*tad-veda*), e.g. *kramaka*, *padaka*, 'knowers of the *krama* and *pada* texts.'