India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.91

c6.91

STOCK-*EXAMPLES*—Patañjali states that the *sūtras* were related to stock-illustrations called *mūrdhābhishikta udāharaṇa* (I.1.57; I.144). According to Kaiyaṭa they were so called because they were accepted in common by all commentaries (*sarva-vṛittish-ūdāhṛitatvāt*). They formed an essential part of the *sūtra* explanation, and were sometimes considered so important as to direct the course of subsequent discussion. The illustration *śastrī-śyāmā* on II.1.55 is a case in point, which may be as old as Pāṇini himself, for it was made by Kātyāyana the basis of one of his *vārttikas* (I.398).