India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s2.1

c12.s2.1

DHARMA AND NYĀYA—The word *Dharma* in Pāṇini has a two-fold meaning, firstly an act of religious merit, *e.g.* one who performs *dharma* is called *dhārmika* (IV.4.41); secondly it means custom or usage as in *sūtra* IV.4.92, according to which an act which does not deviate from *dharma* or usage is called *dharmya* (*dharmād-anapeta*). Pāṇini refers to payments fixed by long usage as *dharmya* (IV.4.47; VI.2.65). This second meaning of *dharma* crystallised in the earliest law, of which the oldest compilations were known as *Dharmasūtras*. Āpastamba commences his work with the statement: *Athātaḥ samayāchārikān Dharmān vyākhyāsyāmaḥ* (*Āpas., Dh. S.*, I.1.1), 'We shall now propound *Dharmas* or laws based on custom'. *Dharma* as a subject of study had been developed under the Vedic *Charaṇas* from before the time of Pāṇini, who refers to this subject in the sūtra *Charaṇebhyo Dharmavat* (IV.2.46), showing that the Vedic schools possessed distinctive texts dealing with *Dharma*, which were none else than the *Dharmasūtras*. Kātyāyana explains it (IV.3.120.11) by saying that a *Charaṇa* had two-fold texts: (1) *Āmnāya* or sacred tradition compiled as religious canon, and (2) *Dharma* or customary law compiled from actual life.