India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.1

c11.s3.1

Pāṇini refers to religious mendicants as *bhikshus* (III.2. 168) from their obligatory duty of begging; whence they were also known as *bhikshāchara* (III.2.17). The ordinary beggar was known as *bhikshāka* (III.2.155). Pāṇini mentions both Brāhmaṇical ascetics and heretical sects. As to the former he mentions those following the *Bhikshu-sūtras* promulgated by Pārāśarya (IV.3.110), and Karmanda (IV.3. 111); of the latter reference is made to Maskarī mendicants (*maskarī parivrājaka*, VI.1.154) who were most probably the followers of Makkhali Gosāla. The term *tāpasa* (V.2.103) or *tapasvin* (V.2.102) was applied to an ascetic practising penance. This was denoted by the special root *tapasyati* (III.1.15). The several epithets like *śamī*, *damī*, *yogī*, *vivekī* and *tyāgī* (III.2.142) were indicative of the stages of spiritual culture. There are also two other terms *dānta* and *śānta* (VII.2.27), signifying control of the senses and the mind. The use of the term *yogī* points to Yoga as a system of spiritual discipline then known.