India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.59

c10.s3.t1.59

*PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE*—The Pāṇinian epoch was already preceded by intense philosophical activity. The implications of his reference to philosophers of the Āstika, Nāstika, and Daishṭika schools (IV.4.60) have been shown above, the last one being represented by the followers of Maskaṟī Gośāla, and the second by such thinkers as the Lokāyatikas. The Lokāyata doctrine was of high antiquity and its second place in the *Ukthādi-gaṇa* may be an authentic reading. *Nyāya*, mentioned thrice (III.3.122; III.3.37, IV.4.92), stands not for the philosophical system of that name, but for justice or customary law; however, some knowledge of its dialectical terminology is foreshadowed in the *sūtra Nigṛihyānuyoge* VIII.2.94 (cf. *Nyāya*, V.2.1; V.2.23. For *nigṛihya* as a term of *vāda* or disputation, cf. also Āraṇyaka-parva, 132.13; 17). The term *Mīmāṁsā* occurs in the *Gaṇa-pāṭha* in relation to its students called *Mīmāṁsaka*, which points to the subject being studied as a system of philosophy (IV.2.61, also III.1.6, *mīmāṁsate*). *BHIKSHU SŪTRAS*—Pāṇini refers to two Vedic Schools of *Bhikshu sūtras* founded by Pārāśarya and Karmanda (IV.3.110-111), their students being called *Pārāśriṇaḥ* and *Karmandinaḥ* respectively. Weber sees in it an allusion to pre-Buddhist Brahmanical mendicants (*H.I.L.*, p. 305, footnote). We know nothing of the work of Karmanda, but the *sūtras* of Pārāśarya may have been the *Vedānta sūtras* which were based on the philosophical doctrine developed in the *Upanishads*. On the other hand it is also probable that the *Bhikshu-sūtras* of Pārāśarya referred to some Sāṅkhya treatise. Pañchaśikha is spoken of a *Bhikshu* and of Parāśara *gotra* (Śāntiparva, 320.24), and being a historical teacher of outstanding merit in the Sāṅkhya tradition is believed to have written a work in prose Sūtras in which his doctrine leaned more towards Vedānta. (Keith, *Sāṅkhya System*, p. 49). The Chinese tradition makes him the author of the *Shaṣṭitantra* itself (*ib.* p. 48).