Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.9

c12.9

**Śikshā.** *Śikshā* is defined by Sāyaṇa as the science of the pronunciation of letters, accents, and the like. Some of the headings in the seventh book of the *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka* are: "On Letters," "On Accents," "On quantity," "On the organs of pronunciation," "On delivery," "On Euphonic Laws." It was thus an important branch of knowledge which was necessary for the right understanding of the sacred texts, especially of the philosophical parts of the Veda as distinguished from the ceremonial parts (Karma-Kāṇḍa). Originally a part of the *Brāhmaṇas*, the subject came to be treated in independent scientific treatises called the *Prātiśākhyas* which, besides giving general rules for the proper pronunciation of the Vedic language in general, were intended to record what was peculiar in the pronunciation of different Vedic schools. A *Prātiśākhya* is thus a collection of phonetic rules peculiar to a *Śākhā* of a Veda, i.e. to one of the different texts in which each of the four Vedas had been handed down for ages in different families and different localities. Thus ancient dialectical differences, and even irregularities and exceptions, created by the freedom of a spoken language, were preserved and rescued from oblivion; general laws were derived from the collection of a large number of similar passages; and a start was thus given to that scientific study of language which reached its perfection in the grammatical masterpiece of Pāṇini.