India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.11

c10.s3.t1.11

(3) *Śilālin*. Pāṇini mentions Śilālin as the author of *Naṭa-sūtras*, his students forming the Vedic School of Dancing designated as *Śailālinaḥ naṭāḥ* (IV.3.110). The Śailālakas were originally a Ṛigvedic *Charaṇa* with their own Brāhmaṇa, cited as the *Śailālika Brāhmaṇa* in the *Āpastamba Śrauta-Sūtra* (Keith, Āpastamba and the Bahvṛicha Brāhmaṇa, *J.R.A.S.*, 1915, p. 498). Kātyāyana also knows of the students of this Vedic school as *Śailālāḥ* (VI.4.144). Thus it will be seen that the students of dramaturgy were called *Śailālinaḥ* while those of orthodox Vedic studies were known by the simpler name of *Śailālāḥ*. The growth of a secular text like the *Naṭa-sūtra* under the auspices of a Vedic School shows the scope that Vedic literature gave to new intellectual development not directly connected with religion.