India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.18

c6.18

Patañjali next applies to Pāṇini the significant epithet *Māṅgalika Āchārya* (I.1.1; I.3.1; I.253), a great teacher who commenced his treatise with a benedictory expression ensuring its continuity and development through the ages. There can be no doubt about Pāṇini's phenomenal success in the annals of human authorship, his work being greeted with universal approval: पाणिनोयं महत् सुविहितम् (*Bhāshya* IV.2.66; II.285). 'Superbly accomplished is the grand treatise of Pāṇini.' His grammar was acknowledged as of superior authority over the works of his predecessors (सूत्रकारश्च शब्दविदां मूर्द्धाभिषिक्तः *Padamañjarī* on IV.1.93); and soon it spread from the elementary to the highest stages of studies. Patañjali testifies to the popularity of Pāṇini's work by saying that it was on the lips of young pupils (*Ākumāraṁ yaśaḥ Pāṇineḥ*, I.4.89; I.347). The *Kāśikā* goes further and says on the basis of an old stock-example that the name of Pāṇini was acclaimed as authority all over the country पाणिनिशब्दः लोके प्रकाशते, इतिपाणिनि, II. 1.6.).