Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.11

c31.11

The second book of reading is the *Sūtra* of Pāṇini, containing 1,000 slokas which the "children begin to learn when they are eight years old and can repeat in eight months' time" (p. 172). Next follow the book on *Dhātu*, and that on the three *Khilas* which the boys would begin when they are ten years old and master after three years' diligent study (p. 175). The book to be read next is the famous *Kāśikāvṛitti*, "the best" of all the commentaries on Pāṇini's Sūtra, comprising 18,000 slokas, and composed by the learned Jayāditya, "a man of great ability with very striking literary power," who died nearly thirty years before I-tsing's notice of him in his account (i.e. A.D. 661–2). "Boys of fifteen years begin to study this commentary and understand it after years. If men of China go to India for study, they have first of all to learn this grammatical work, then other subjects; if not, their labour will be thrown away."