India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s8.8

c8.s8.8

DRESS—The dress of the times is indicated in the *sūtra Antaraṁ bahiryogopasaṁvyānayoḥ*, I.¹.36. We learn from this rule that *antara* in Pāṇini's time was used in two senses, *viz.* exterior (*bahiryoga*) and dress (*upasaṁvyāna*). According to Kātyāyana *upasaṁvyāna* denoted one of a pair of *śāṭakas*. Since there were two *śāṭakas* one serving as *uttarīya* and the other as *antarīya*, *upasaṁvyāna* denoted the one which served as *antarīya*, *viz.* that which was worn, and not that which was used as a wrapper or scarf to be thrown over the shoulders. The *Kāśikā* further explains that *upasaṁvyāna* was a kind of *paridhānīya* 'fit for wearing,' and not a *prāvaraṇīya* 'covering.' In the most early examples of Indian sculpture as shown in the Parkham Yaksha statue (Dr. Coomaraswamy, *H.I.I.A.*, Pl. III), the Dīdārganj Yakshī from Patna, made of polished Chunar stone and belonging to the Maurya period (*ibid.*, Pl. V), and the numerous Yaksha and Yakshī figures of Sanchi and Bharhut, the sole dress of both male and female figures consists practically of a pair of *śāṭakas* (*śāṭakayugam*). Both the *upasaṁvyāna* (*antara śāṭaka*, *antarīya*) and the *prāvaraṇīya* (upper scarf) were arranged gracefully in an endless variety of ways. The Greeks in the fourth century B.C. were struck with the extreme simplicity and elegance of Indian dress, consisting then as in the time of Pāṇini, of a pair of *śāṭakas*. Arrian writes: 'The dress worn by the Indians is made of cotton, as Nearchos tells us. They wear an undergarment of cotton which reaches below the knee half-way down to the ankles, and also an upper garment which they throw partly over their shoulders, and partly twist in folds round their head.' (Arrian. *Ind.* Frag. XVI). The *Ashṭādhāyī* enables us to know that the undergarment reached down to the forepart of the foot, and was therefore called *āprapadīna* (V.2.8). An invariable feature of wearing the *antarīya* or *dhoti* as seen on ancient sculptures depicting male and female figures is the tying of the girdle round the waist. The arrangement of the girdle is clearly visible on the Parkham statue, the Besnagar Yakshi and the Patna Yakshas, where it can be distinguished from the upper scarf and the lower *dhoti*. Pāṇini refers to a girdle as *nīvi*, the region of the belt being called *upanīvi* (IV.3.40).