India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.69

c6.69

Yuan Chwang speaks of a thousand pieces of gold as the reward received by one who mastered the *Ashṭādhyāyī* from beginning to end. *Sūtra* VI.2.65 (*Saptamī-hāriṇau dharmye’haraṇe*) presupposes a customary payment of this nature called *dharmya* and speaks of its recipient as *hārin*, one who took away the *dharmya* prize (*āchāra-niyataṁ deyaṁ yaḥ svīkaroti*, *Kāśikā*). The rule prescribes acute accent on the first syllable of the word denoting the recipient. One of the stock-illustrations cited by Patañjali actually makes the *vaiyākaraṇa* or grammarian a recipient (*hārin*), and speaks of an elephant as his customary fee (*Bhāshya*, VI.2.52; III.130; *Kāśikā*, VI.2.65, *vaiyākaraṇa-hastī*). The gift of an elephant as a prize could have originated only in the east of India. Kauṭilya mentions 1,000 silver pieces as the reward of learning (*vidyāvataḥ pūjā-vetana*, *Arth.* V. 3; p. 248).