India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s2.16

c10.s2.16

*WRITING*—Writing was known in the time of Pāṇini and even earlier according to Goldstücker who thinks that Vedic literature was available to Pāṇini even in Mss. (Goldstücker, *Pāṇini*, pp. 11-47). Though teaching was oral in those days, and study from manuscripts was not encouraged on principle as the proper method of learning, Pāṇini hints at the use of writing in several significant expressions. These are (1) *grantha*, (2) *lipikara*, a writer, (3) *Yavanānī lipi*, and (4) the marks of numerals imprinted on the ears of cattle to indicate their owners, as already shown (VI.3.115).