India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.58

c10.s3.t1.58

JYOTISHA—Some works on Jyotisha were possibly known, as we find reference in the *sūtras* to belief in divination from bodily signs (III.2.53), and also to fortune-telling by sooth-sayers (I.4.39, *Rādhīkshyor-yasya vipraśnaḥ*). The mention of *utpāta*, *saṁvatsara*, *muhūrta* and *nimitta* as subjects of study in the *Ṛigayanādi-gaṇa* (IV.3.73) indicates the study of astro-nomy and omens. Early Buddhist literature is full of refer-ences to divining by means of signs (*nimittam*) and fortune-telling from marks on the body (*lakkhaṇam*, the word being used in an identical sense by Pāṇini in III.2.52-53), which were forbidden for monks. Five topics of study included in the *Ṛigayanādi group* (IV.3.73) are also found in the *Brahmajāla Sutta*, *viz.* (1) *Nimitta*, (2) *Uppādo* (=*utpāda* in the *gaṇa*), (3) *Aṅgavijjā*, (*Aṅgavidyā*), (4) *Vatthuvijjā* (determining whether the site for a proposed house is lucky or not; *Vāstuvidyā* in the *gaṇa*), and (5) *Khattavijjā* (=*Kshatravidyā* of the *Gaṇa-pāṭha* which is also mentioned in the list of sciences in the *Chh. Up.*, VII.1.4) (cf. *Brahmajāla Sutta*, Rhys Davids Trans. pp. 16-18, f.n.). Buddhaghośa renders *Uppāda* as 'the portents of the great ones, thunderbolts falling, and so on' caused by divine agency (cf. *Jātaka*, I.374; and commentary on *Uppāda*). Kauṭilya mentions the *naimittikas* and *mauhūrtikas* (*Arth.*, p. 23), and Megasthenes also refers to experts who 'gathered together at the beginning of the year to forewarn the assembled multitudes about droughts and wet weather, and also about propitious winds', (*Diod.* II.40, M'Crindle, Frag.I). These latter correspond to the *Sāṁvatsarikas* of Pāṇini (IV.3.73, *Gaṇa-pāṭha*).