India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.74

c6.74

In the illustrations to several *sūtras*, the *Kāśikā* speaks of the Pāṇinīya system as an *akālaka grammar* (*Pāṇinyupajñam akālakaṁ vyākaraṇam*, II.4.21, IV.3.115 and VI.2.14). The name is significant as showing that Pāṇini wisely excluded from his purview the discussion of *kāla* or tenses like *Paroksha* (Perfect) and *Vartamāna* (Present), on the exact definition of which subtle and elaborate arguments were often advanced by grammarians (cf. *Bhāshya*, III.2.115; II.120, III.2.123; II.123). ‘Some say *Paroksha* means the lapse of a century; others say that which is screened from the eye of the speaker is *Paroksha*; still others contend that an interval of two to three days constitutes *Paroksha*’ (*Bhāshya*, II.120). Pāṇini took a practical view in the matter, as indeed he did in the case of other extreme views also. In the *Sūtra-kāṇḍa* (I.2.51.57) he says that it is not within the province of the grammarian to lay down rules (*aśishyam*) about particulars of time and tense durations, since he must depend on the usage of the day (*saṁjñā-pramāṇa*) for such regulations. This position of Pāṇini expressed in the *sūtra ‘Kālopasarjane cha tulyam’* (I.2.57) must have been responsible for the epithet *akālaka* applied to his grammar.