India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c13.13

c13.13

*THE NANDA TRADITION*—There is a strong tradition preserved in both the Buddhist and Brahmanical literatures that Pāṇini was a contemporary of some Nanda king. Tārānātha, in his *History of Buddhism* compiled from older sources (1608 A.D.) states that Pāṇini lived in the time of a Nanda king. Somadeva (1063-1081) in the *Kathāsaritsāgara* and Kshemendra in the *Bṛihatkathāmañjarī* (11th century) also associate Pāṇini with king Nanda and his capital Pāṭaliputra. The newly discovered *Mañjuśrī-Mūlakalpa*, which Jayaswal placed roughly at about 800 A.D., confirms the tradition that 'king Nanda's great friend was a Brāhmaṇa, Pāṇini by name' (Jayaswal's edition, p. 14), and also adds that in the capital of Magadha there were Brāhmaṇa controversialists who gathered at the king's court. Yuan Chwang from his record of the tradition as handed down in Pāṇini's birth-place, Śalātura, states that Pāṇini after finishing his work sent it to the supreme ruler, who exceedingly prized it and issued an edict that throughout the kingdom it should be used and taught to others (*Siyuki*, p. 115). Although the name of the king and that of the town of Pāṭaliputra are not mentioned, he confirms the tradition of Pāṇini's connection with a royal court and of the patronage bestowed upon him in recognition of his work. Rājaśekhara (900 A.D.) connects Pāṇini with the *Śāstrakāra Parīkshā* of Pāṭaliputra which as we have shown corresponds with the account of the Great Synod or the literary assembly held under royal patronage which Megasthenes found functioning at Pāṭaliputra as an old institution (M'Crindle's *Megasthenes*, Frag. XXXIII; *Strabo*, XV.1). A tradition which is thus testified by different sources, Greek, Chinese, Indian, seems to be based on truth. The contact between *Udīchya* (Northern) and *Prāchya* (Eastern) scholars was a feature of intellectual life of ancient India from the time of the *Upanishads*, as in the case of Uddālaka Āruṇi of Pañchāla proceeding to the Madra country in search of higher knowledge. Pāṇini also shared in this kind of intellectual intercourse. We have seen the same thing in the career of Chāṇakya who visited Pāṭaliputra in quest of disputation (*ante*, p. 20).