India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.40

c11.s3.40

*INDRA AND INDRIYA*—Indra, the famous Vedic deity is referred to in the *Ashṭādhyāyī* by his older synonyms as *Marutvat* (IV.2.32), *Maghavan* (IV.4.128), *Vṛitrahan* (III.2.87). Pāṇini also records the synonym *Mahendra* (IV.2.29), a word used only thrice in the *Yajurveda* in a late prose formula (VII. 39-40; XXVI.10). The conception of Mahendra seems to have arisen out of that of the Chief Vital Air (*Madhya Prāṇa*) enkindling others through the five sense-organs (*Śatapatha*, VI.1.1.2), symbolised as a group of Five-Indras (cf. Udyogaparva, 33.103, *Pāṇḍoḥ putrāḥ pañcha Pañchendra-kalpāḥ*). But the reference to the new metaphysical meaning of Indra as Self is truly remarkable (V.2.93). This new meaning had been evolved in the religio-philosophical cogitations of the *Brāhmaṇas* where new *adhyātma* interpretations of the hymns were being discussed. Pāṇini derives *Indriya*, 'sense-organs', from the word *Indra* meaning 'Self'. He sums up the various derivations in five clauses of equal rank, and also provides for other possible views by adding the phrase *iti vā* in the *sūtra*.¹ We learn from Yāska that the derivation of Indra was a major point of discussion in which eminent teachers like Āgrāyaṇa and Aupamanyava had participated. The fifteen different etymologies of Indra compiled by Yāska (*Nirukta*, X.8; cf. H. Sköld, *The Nirukta*, p. 210) were taken from different *Brāhmaṇa* and *Āraṇyaka* passages, some of which can still be traced (cf. my article 'Studies in the Grammatical Speculations of Pāṇini', *J.U.P.H.S.*, April, 1936, pp. 95-104). Pāṇini also refers to them as shown below.