India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.27

c11.s3.27

*JÑA*—Patañjali takes the word *Jña* to mean Brāhmaṇas as embodiments of *jñāna* or spiritual knowledge and refers to their descendants who carried on the ancient philosophic tradition. The term probably originated in the *Upanishads* (*Jñaḥ kālakālo guṇī sarva-vid yaḥ*, *Śv. Up.*, VI.2). Patañjali also mentions *Jña* as a deity named *Jñā Devatā*, to whom householders were to offer special oblations (*Jñā devatāysa sthālīpākasya Jñaḥ sthālīpākaḥ*, *Bhāshya*, VI.4.163; III.232). Pāṇini mentions *Jñaḥ* (III.1.135) as an independent word signifying 'One who knows'. It appears as if the monosyllabic *Jña* stood for the ideal of the Sophistic movement beginning in the *Upanishads* and reaching its climax in the time of the Buddha and Mahāvīra. Patañjali refers to celebrated families of these Sophists as *jñānāṁ Brāhmaṇānām apatyam*, descendants of Brāhmaṇas who followed the *Jña* deity and were themselves known as *Jña*. (*Bhāshya*, IV.1.1; II.190).