India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s2.11

c10.s2.11

*PLAN OF A TREATISE*—A requisite of literary composition is its proper planning and presentation of subject-matter. This plan is called *tantra-yukti*. The work of Kauṭilya has thirty-two *Tantra-yuktis*; Charaka and Suśruta also mention them, the former adding three more to the list. The ancient Tamil grammar, the *Tolkappiyam*, based on the tradition of the Aindra school, enumerates in its Porulātikāram section thirty-two principles of which twenty-two agree with those of Kauṭilya. The Mīmāṁsakas with their flare for analysis have indicated the principles of a literary composition. Of these they have singled out *saṁgati*, inherent consistency or internal order, and *maṅgala*, benedictory opening. These *Tantra-yuktis* were also known to Pāṇini. The first of these, *viz.* *Adhikāra*, treatment of the matter within the purview or scope of a work is referred to in the *sūtra* *Adhikṛitya kṛite granthe* (IV.3.87), i.e. a work that is composed in accordance with the principle of *adhikāra*, or sense of the relevant. Pāṇini's own work is model of *Vidhāna* or the treatment of topics in their inherent order. Whitney supposed that the *Ashṭādhyāyī* lacked the logical order in the arrangement of its topics, but Barend Faddegon has shown that this assumption is not correct (*Studies on Pāṇini's Grammar*, 1936). Buiskool from his Study of the Tripādī Chapters (*Tripādī*, 1939) holds that Pāṇini's work was based on a system of thematical groups which are rationally classified and arranged.¹