India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.4

c11.s3.4

AYAHŚŪLA—Pāṇini refers to a class of false ascetics known as *āyaḥśūlika*, 'who flourished by the method of *ayaḥśūla* or iron spikes' (V.2.76). Patañjali's comment is of some historical interest. 'If *ayaḥśūla* literally means an iron spike, the word so formed will apply to a Śiva-Bhāgavata which is not the intention of Pāṇini's *sūtra*. Therefore the term *ayaḥśūla* indicates the practice of violent methods (*rabhasa*) to recruit followers as distinguished from the softer method of persuasion and instruction' (*mṛidu upāya*, *Bhāshya*, V.2.76). Patañjali here gives the information that there was a sect of the Śiva-Bhāgavatas who worshipped Śiva as Bhagavān and whose outward sign was an iron trident (*Ind. Ant.*, 1912, p. 272). As opposed to them the *āyaḥśūlika* Śaivas pierced their tongue or arms or other parts of the body with iron prongs and extracted forced sympathy.