India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.56

c6.56

Pāṇini's travels in search of facts from the living language and the method of personal discussion and interrogation to elicit information were in the manner of the true Takshaśilā style, which was marked by a practical bias in the pursuit of academic studies. We have a graphic account in Buddhist literature describing how the royal physician Jīvaka was directed by his teacher to examine the plants in the region of Takshaśilā as sources of medicine (*Mahāvagga*, VIII.1.6 ff). Born at Śalātura as he was, Pāṇini must have been brought up in the academic tradition of Takshaśilā which was a far-famed centre of learning in that period. In one of the Jātakas we are told how students after completing their studies at Takshaśilā, wandered far and wide, acquiring all practical uses of arts, and understanding the various country observances (*Takkasilaṁ gantvā uggahita-sippā tato nikkhamitvā sabbasamaya-sippañ cha desachārittañ cha jānissāmāti anupubbena chārikaṁ charantā*, *Jāt.* V.247).