India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s2.19

c10.s2.19

(3) *Yavanānī* (IV.1.49). Kātyāyana's *vārttika* mentioning the *lipi* of the Yavanas (*Yavanāl-lipyām*) is only an explanation of Pāṇini's use of the term *Yavanānī*. It is unwarranted to assume that he is supplying some new information not known to Pāṇini. Such an assumption goes against the very style of Kātyāyana's other *vārttikas* on this *sūtra*, designed to explain and not supplement the words of Pāṇini's rule, as *himānī*, *araṇyānī*, *yavānī*. *Yavanānī* as the name of a script occurs in the list of scripts in the *Samavāyāṅga sūtra* (*Samavāya* XVIII) under the form *Javaṇāṇīyā* (cf. also the same list in *Paṇṇavaṇā sūtra*). Weber interpreted *Yavanānī* as Greek writing (*Ind. St.*, IV.89). Keith also holds that *Yavanānī lipi* meant 'Greek (Ionian) writing' (*Hist. of Sans. Lit.*, p. 425).