India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.62

c10.s3.t1.62

129) refers to some treatise for the use of actors. As the *Kāśikā* explains, the *Nāṭya* text had the status of an *āmnāya* pointing to its growth under a Vedic *Charaṇa*. We have already referred to the development of *Naṭa-sūtras* in Pāṇini's time under the Schools of Śilālin and Kṛiśāśva (IV.3.110-111). The present treatise on dramaturgy known as the *Nāṭya śāstra* of Bharata describes the *Naṭas* as *Śailālakas*. The corresponding Vedic term used by Pāṇini is *Śailālinaḥ Naṭaḥ*. It seems that Bharata's *Nāṭyaśāstra* was the product of the dramatic school of Śilālin which originated in the Ṛigvedic *Charaṇa* founded by that teacher, who was also the author of a Brāhmaṇa work called *Śailāli Brāhmaṇa* cited in the *Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra* VI.4.7.