India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s1.7

c11.s1.7

Āditya referred to in *sūtra* IV.1.85 is to be taken as the name of the classical sun-god rather than of the Vedic Ādityas. In fact a new feature of the Pāṇinian pantheon is the emergence of time-denoting words raised to the status of deities (IV. 2.34). For instance, oblation was prepared to worship the deity named *Māsa*, 'Month', and called *Māsika*; and similarly for the deity *Saṁvatsara*, 'Year', and called *Sāṁvatsarika*. There was also worship of the 'Seasons' as deities, *e.g.* Vasanta or Spring, the oblation being called *Vāsantaṁ haviḥ*. Pāṇini himself refers to *Ṛitu*, 'Season' as a deity (IV.2.31), in whose honour some worship was prescribed. This process of deification extended even to stars. This is indicated by the mention of Proshṭhapada, a name of Bhādrapada, as a *devatā* or deity (IV.2.35). But the whole system of adopting personal names after the names of asterisms, for which detailed rules are given (IV.3.34, 36, 37), was due to the fact that the stars became objects of adoration and worship. Names like Rohiṇisheṇa, Bharaṇisheṇa and Śatabhishaksena implied in the *sūtra* *Nakshatrād-vā* (VIII.3.100) point to a belief in the beneficent influence of deities presiding over these asterisms.