India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.63

c10.s3.t1.63

Patañjali speaking for later times refers to Naṭa teachers (*ākhyātā*) of dance initiating novices (*ārambhakāḥ*) in the art not through texts (*granthārtha*), but by their direct method of stage-acting (I.4.29; I.329, *ātaśchopayogo yadārambhakā raṅgaṁ gachchhanti naṭasya śroshyāmaḥ*). This instruction, however, did not merit the honorific epithet *upayoga*, a term reserved for instruction under the approved religious system of teachers and initiated pupils.