India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.37

c6.37

Upavarsha was a commentator on the Mīmāṁsā and Vedānta *sūtras* (Jacobi, *J.A.O.S.*, 1912, p. 15; cf. *Śaṅkara-Bhāshya*, III.3.53). His views about *śabda* are preserved to us in a citation by Śaṅkarāchārya who refers to him as *Bhagavān* Upavarsha (I.3.28). Varsha, his brother is said to have been Pāṇini's teacher. Pāṇini as a Śāstrakāra and author of a new grammatical system would have submitted his work to this learned assembly of Pāṭaliputra. Piṅgala, the author of the *Chhando-vichiti*, a name at present included in the *Gaṇa-pāṭha* of IV.3.73, is spoken of as Pāṇini's younger brother (*anuja*) by Shaḍguruśishya in the *Vedārthadīpikā* commentary. Vyāḍi the author of the *Saṅgraha-sūtra*, a known work on Grammar and highly spoken of in the *Bhāshya* (cf. Patañjali on the meaning of *Siddha* decided in the *Saṅgraha*, I.6; also *Śobhanā khalu Dākshāyaṇasya Saṅgrahasya kṛitiḥ*, I.468) was a junior contemporary of Pāṇini. Vyāḍi wrote his *Saṅgraha* in the *sūtra* style as is evident from Patañjali's reference to students called *Sāṅgrahasūtrikas*, (those who studied the *Saṅgraha-sūtras*, IV.2.60; II.284). Kātyāyana and Patañjali are well-known grammarians. Thus the order in which these names are mentioned may be taken to be that of chronology. Patañjali who is a known contemporary of Pushyamitra Śuṅga of the second century B.C. is the last of this exalted race of grammarians.