India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.57

c10.s3.t1.57

UKTHA—The *Uktha* treatise mentioned at the head of the *Ukthādi* group (IV.2.60) of which the students were called *aukthika*, appears to be a work partaking of the nature of *Pārshada* works of the *Sāmaveda*. Patañjali writes: 'What are Ukthas? Sāmans are the Ukthas. If so, all chanters of Sāmans will be called *aukthika*. No, there is no fault if we take *Uktha* in the sense of a work dealing with Uktha' (*tād-arthyāt tāchchhabdyam*, *Bhāshya*, IV.2.60; II.283). Kaiyaṭa following Patañjali informs us that one of the Sāma-lakshaṇa treatises was known as *Uktha*. A selection of Ṛik verses for the purpose of recitation suited to each particular occasion bears the name *śastra* to be recited by the Hotṛi priest, and a similar selection of different *Sāmans* made into a group to be recited by the Udgātā priest was called *Uktha* (from *vach*, to speak) (Weber, *H.I.L.*, p. 67). It must have been the task of the Sāmaveda teachers to fix rules for the making of Uktha songs. The texts which dealt with this subject were also called *Uktha*, and must have been considered important among the *lakshaṇa* works of the Sāmaveda.