Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.102

c8.102

Böhtlingk’s theory rests upon a story in the Kathāsaritsāgara, a collection of popular tales belonging to the eleventh century A.D., where Pāṇini is said to have been the disciple of one Varsha, who lived at Pāṭaliputra in the reign of King Nanda. But as Weber points out¹ the authority of such a work is extremely questionable in reference to a period fifteen centuries earlier. Moreover, the work makes Kātyāyana a contemporary of Pāṇini.² But as Goldstücker points out the two grammarians really belonged to two different periods of Hindu antiquity.³ The assertion is also contradicted by a statement of Kātyāyana himself. A rule of Pāṇini, iv, 3, 105, teaches us that the names of *Brāhmaṇas* and *Kalpas* are formed by adding the affix " *ṇini* " to the proper names of the personage who proclaims them, provided that such a personage is an old authority. As the *Brāhmaṇas* proclaimed by Yājñavalkya are not formed by the affix " *ṇini* " it is clear that Pāṇini did not include Yājñavalkya among the old authorities.¹