India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.t1.89

c9.s1.t1.89

CLASSIFICATION—Pāṇini classifies creation into animate (*prāṇin*, IV.3.135; 154; also *prāṇabhṛit*, V.¹.129) and inanimate (*aprāṇin*, II.4.6; V.4.97 etc.), the two being also mentioned as *chittavat*, 'with mind' (V.1.89) and *achitta*, 'without mind' (IV.2.47). This becomes significant against the background of the Upanishadic thought where *prāṇa* (vitality) and *chitta* (mind) are considered as the two characteristics of life. The animate world is further subdivided into human (*manushya*, IV.2.134) and animal (*paśu*, III.3.69) kingdoms; and the latter again on the basis of their habits into domestic (*grāmya-paśu*, I.2.73) and wild (*āraṇya*, IV.2.129). Other modes of classification are also referred to, *viz.* according to size, as *kshudra-jantus* (II.4.8), or their food as *kravyād*, the carnivorous animals (III.2.69). Pre-Pāṇinian attempts at classification are reflected in such words as *ubhayatodanta* and *anyatodanta*, *dvipād* and *chatushpād*, *ekaśapha* and *dviśapha* of Vedic literature (*Vedic Index*, I.510). *Mṛiga* is generally a wild beast in the *Ashṭādhyāyī* (IV.3.51; IV.4.35), but in *sūtra* II.4.12 it stands for the cervidae, such as *ruru-pṛishatam* in the *Bhāshya* signifying two species of deer. Birds are called *pakshī* (IV.4.35) and *śakuni* (II.4.12). Pāṇini mentions the following animals: