India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.6

c8.s14.6

SAMMADA—Pāṇini explains *sammada* and *pramada* as festivity (*harsha*, III.3.68). It was a kind of opera as illustrated in a sculpture at Bharhut, inscribed as '*Sāḍakaṁ sammadaṁ turaṁ devānaṁ*,' an opera (*saṭṭaka*) comprising both instrumental and vocal music performed in the palace of gods (Barua *Barhut*, Book I, plate 2; also Book III, Fig. 34). The scene shows several groups, namely, singers, four female dancers, and an orchestral band (*tūrya*) comprising of female lyre-players, a hand-clapper, a cymbalist and a taborer. According to the *Nidāna-kathā* a *tūrya* party consisted of players on five musical instruments (*pañchaṅgika tūrya*, *Jāt*. I.32), probably by adding a flute-player to the four represented in the Bharhut scene. *Sammada*, therefore, appears to have been a festive celebration in which dance and music played an essential part.