India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s10.5

c8.s10.5

There is, however, one word in the *Ashṭādhyāyī*, which gives a definite clue to Pāṇini's acquaintance with the technical details of the building of ramparts and parapets. He mentions *devapatha* at the head of the *gaṇa Devapathādi*, (V.3.100), which again can be explained only in the light of Kauṭilya. This corroborative testimony from the *Arthaśāstra* is rather singular since no other work throws light on the meaning of the Pāṇinian word. According to Pāṇini the ‘passage’ which resembles a ‘celestial passage’ (*devapatha*) is called *devapatha* (V.3.100). What can such a passage or road possibly be so as to deserve the comparison involved? According to Kauṭilya the wide road on the top of the parapet built along the line of battlements (*indrakośas*) was called *devapatha* (*Arth.* Text, II.3, p. 52; Trans. p. 51). The height of the brick fort-wall (*prākāra*) above the mud-rampart (*vapra*) is there stated to be thirty-six feet rising from the ground level¹, and the battlements were built above it. The *deva-patha* extending along the city-wall should be understood with reference to its great height resembling the celestial passage (*devapatha*) in the heavens, justifying the comparison of the former with the latter (V.3.100).² The *Raghuvamśa* (XIII.19) also refers to *devapatha* (=*surapatha*) as an altitude in the stratospheric measurements. We learn from later literature that the walled town of Pāṭaliputra became noted for its fortifications (*Pāṭaliputrakāḥ prāsādāḥ*) including its city-walls or palisades (*Pāṭaliputrakāḥ prākarāḥ*), and we find Patañjali speaking of the guide-book called *Sukosalā* which gave a detailed (*avayavaśaḥ*) description of the wonderful city-walls of Pāṭaliputra (*Bhāshya*, IV.3.36. II.3.11; and IV.3.134; II.321).