India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.7

c10.s3.7

Another variety of *Prokta* literature mentioned by Pāṇini consisted of two special kinds of *sūtra* works, *viz.* (1) the *Bhikshusūtras* of Pārāśarya and Karmanda, and (2) the *Naṭa-sūtras* of Śilālin and Kṛiśāśva (IV.3.110-11). It is surprising that the strict principle of *tad-vishayatā* which applied to Vedic works should have been extended to these four works of later origin and secular character. The examples cited by Patañjali, *Pārāśariṇo bhikshavaḥ*, *Śailālino naṭāḥ*, show that these treatises were connected with their own schools with a succession of teachers and pupils (*adhyetṛi veditṛi*), like other orthodox sacred works. The *Pārāśara* and *Śailālaka Charaṇas* were originally related to the *Ṛigveda*, but their activity later on centred round new subjects of study dealt with in their *Bhikshusūtras* and *Naṭasūtras*. Probably the *Naṭasūtras* of Śilālin were the original sources of the material in Bharata's *Nāṭyaśāstra*. The Vedic schools lent their authority to the secular subjects promoted by them, which were thus given the rank of Chhandas works (*Bhikshu-Naṭa-sūtrayoś-Chhandastvam*, *Kāśikā*), and the status of Vedic schools applied to them (*Atrāpi tad-vishayatā chetyanuvartishyate*, *Bhāshya*, II.286). That Pāṇini looked upon the dramaturgical works as *āmnāya* of sacred authority associated with the *Charaṇas*, is borne out by the reference to *Nāṭya* in *sūtra* IV.3.129, (cf. *naṭa śabdādapi dharmāmnāyayoreva bhavati*, *Kāśikā*). The *Bhikshusūtra* of Karmanda and the *Naṭasūtra* of Kṛiśāśva were no doubt the product of the Vedic *Charaṇas* (*atrāpi tad-vishayatārthaṁ chhando-grahaṇam*, *Kāśikā*, IV.3.111). It is not known to which Veda these latter belonged.