India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.14

c10.s3.14

(5) *Vyākhyāna* (IV.3.66). Literature of Exposition and Commentaries. It comprised miscellaneous works on religious and secular subjects. These were not to be reckoned as original works, but were called for by the practical needs of interpreting and conserving Vedic texts, performance of rituals, and also to advance the knowledge embodied in the Vedāṅgas, works of philosophy and miscellaneous subjects, such as astrology (*Jyotish*), divination (*Aṅgavidyā*), military science (*Kshatra-vidyā*), etc. These included a vast and varied range of literature, like the extensive works on *Soma-Kratus* and smaller handbooks on *Puroḍāśa*, explanations of special parts (*Adhyāyas*) of the Ṛigveda, specialised grammatical works like *Nāmika* and *Ākhyātika* (IV.3.72). The literature of Commentaries added to the volume and variety of Sanskrit literature by the contributions made to it by authors of different capacities, competent to deal with such scientific subjects as grammar and etymology, and others to treat such minor topics as portents (*utpāta*, IV.3.73), and fortune-telling (*nimitta*), its text being called *naimitta*, (IV.3.73) and an interpreter of prognostics as *naimittika*, (IV.2.60). Pāṇini refers to foretelling in *sūtra* I.4.39 (*Rādhīkshyor-yasya vipraśnaḥ*).