Christian era. Pandya was well known to the Romans as the kingdom of King Pandion, who is said to have sent ambassadors on two different occasions to Augustus Cæsar. Its capital was Madura, the Southern Mathura. Pandya seems to have fallen under the ascendancy of the Chola kings in the seventh or eighth century.

PANINI. The celebrated grammarian, author of the work called Paniniyam. This is the standard authority on Sanskrit grammar, and it is held in such respect and reverence that it is considered to have been written by inspiration. So in old times Panini was placed among the Rishis, and in more modern days he is represented to have received a large portion of his work by direct inspiration from the god Siva. It is also said that he was so dull a child that he was expelled from school, but the favour of Siva placed him foremost in knowledge. He was not the first grammarian, for he refers to the works of several who preceded him. The grammars which have been written since his time are numberless, but although some of them are of great excellence and much in use, Panini still reigns supreme, and his rules are incontestable. "His work," says Professor Williams, "is perhaps the most original of all productions of the Hindu mind." The work is written in the form of Sūtras or aphorisms, of which it contains 3996, arranged in eight (ashta) chapters (adhyaya), from which the work is sometimes called Ashtadhyayi. These aphorisms are exceedingly terse and complicated. Special training and study are required to reach their meaning. Colebrooke remarks, that "the endless pursuit of exceptions and limitations so disjoins the general precepts, that the reader cannot keep in view their intended connection and mutual relations. He wanders in an intricate maze, and the key of the labyrinth is continually slipping from his hand." But it has been well observed that there is a great difference between the European and Hindu ideas of a grammar. In Europe, grammar has hitherto been looked upon as only a means to an end, the medium through which a knowledge of language and literature is acquired. With the Pandit, grammar was a science; it was studied for its own sake, and investigated with the most minute criticism; hence, as Goldstücker says, "Panini's work is indeed a kind of natural history of the Sanskrit language.' Panini was a native of Salatura, in the country of Gandhara,

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west of the Indus, and so is known as Salottarīya. He is described as a descendant of Panin and grandson of Devala. His mother's name was Dākshi, who probably belonged to the race of Daksha, and he bears the metronymic Daksheya. He is also called Āhika. The time when he lived is uncertain, but it is supposed to have been about four centuries B.C. Goldstücker carries him back to the sixth century, but Weber is inclined to place him considerably later. Panini's grammar has beer. printed by Böhtlingk, and also in India. See Goldstücker's Panini, his Place in Literature."

PANIS. Niggards.' In the Rig-veda, "the senseless, false, evil-speaking, unbelieving, unpraising, unworshipping Panis were Dasyus or envious demons who used to steal cows and hide them in caverns." They are said to have stolen the cows recovered by Saramā (q.v.).

PANNAGA. A serpent, snake. See Naga.

PĀPA-PURUSHA. 'Man of sin.' A personification of all wickedness in a human form, of which all the members are great sins. The head is brahmanicide, the arm cow-killing, the nose woman-murder, &c.

PĀRADAS. A barbarous people dwelling in the north-west. Manu says they were Kshatriyas degraded to be Sudras.

PARAMARSHIS (Parama-rishis). The great Rishis. See

Rishi.

PARAMĀTMAN. The supreme soul of the universe.

PARAMESHTHIN. 'Who stands in the highest place.' A title applied to any superior god and to some distinguished mortals. A name used in the Vedas for a son or a creation of Prajapati.

Speculations as to his era B.C., and cannot be trusted.

PARĀSARA. A Vedic Rishi to whom some hymns of the Rig-veda are attributed. He was a disciple of Kapila, and he received the Vishnu Purana from Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya. He was also a writer on Dharma-sastra, and texts of his are often cited in books on law. differ widely, from 575 B.C. to 1391 By an amour with Satyavati he was father of Krishna Dwaipāyana, the Vyasa or arranger of the Vedas. According to the Nirukta, he was son of Vasishtha, but the Mahā-bhārata and the Vishnu Purana make him the son of Saktri and grandson of Vasishtha. The legend of his birth, as given in the Mahā-bhārata,

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is that King Kalmāsha-pāda met with Saktri in a narrow path, and desired him to get out of the way. The sage refused, and the Rāja struck him with his whip. Thereupon the sage cursed the Raja so that he became a man-eating Rakshasa. In this state he ate up Saktri, whose wife, Adrisyanti, afterwards gave birth to Parāsara. When this child grew up and heard the particulars of his father's death, he instituted a sacrifice for the destruction of all the Rakshasas, but was dissuaded from its completion by Vasishtha and other sages. As he desisted, he scattered the remaining sacrificial fire upon the northern face of the Himalaya, where it still blazes forth at the phases of the moon, consuming Rakshasas, forests, and mountains,

PĀRASIKAS. Pārsikas or Farsikas, i.e., Persians.

PARASU-RAMA. Rama with the axe.' The first Rāma and the sixth Avatara of Vishnu. He was a Brahman, the fifth son of Jamad-agni and Renukā. By his father's side he descended from Bhrigu, and was, par excellence, the Bhargava; by his mother's side he belonged to the royal race of the Kusikas. He became manifest in the world at the beginning of the Tretayuga, for the purpose of repressing the tyranny of the Kshatriya or regal caste. His story is told in the Maha-bharata and in the Purānas. He also appears in the Rāmāyana, but chiefly as an opponent of Rama-chandra. According to the Maha-bhārata, he instructed Arjuna in the use of arms, and had a combat with Bhishma, in which both suffered equally. He is also represented as being present at the great war council of the Kaurava princes. This Parasu-rama, the sixth Avatara of Vishnu, appeared in the world before Rama or Rama-chandra, the seventh Avatara, but they were both living at the same time, and the elder incarnation showed some jealousy of the younger. The Maha-bharata represents Parasu-rāma as being struck senseless by Ramachandra, and the Rāmāyana relates how Parasu-rāma, who was a follower of Siva, felt aggrieved by Rama's breaking the bow of Siva, and challenged him to a trial of strength. This ended in his defeat, and in some way led to his being "excluded from a seat in the celestial world." In early life Parasu-rama was under the protection of Siva, who instructed him in the use of arms, and gave him the parasu, or axe, from which he is named. The first act recorded of him by the Maha-bharata is that, by

arms.

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command of his father, he cut off the head of his mother, Renukā. She had incensed her husband by entertaining impure thoughts, and he called upon each of his sons in succession to kill her. Parasu-rāma alone obeyed, and his readiness so pleased his father that he told him to ask a boon. He begged that his mother might be restored pure to life, and, for himself, that he might be invincible in single combat and enjoy length of days. Parasurama's hostility to the Kshatriyas evidently indicates a severe struggle for the supremacy between them and the Brahmans. He is said to have cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas twentyone times, and to have given the earth to the Brahmans. The origin of his hostility to the Kshatriyas is thus related:-Kārtavirya, a Kshatriya, and king of the Haihayas, had a thousand This king paid a visit to the hermitage of Jamad-agni in the absence of that sage, and was hospitably entertained by his wife, but when he departed he carried off a sacrificial calf belonging to their host. This act so enraged Parasu-rama that he pursued Kārta-virya, cut off his thousand arms and killed him. In retaliation the sons of Karta-vīrya killed Jamad-agni, and for that murder Parasu-rāma vowed vengeance against them and the whole Kshatriya race. "Thrice seven times did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya caste, and he filled with their blood the five large lakes of Samanta-panchaka." He then gave the earth to Kasyapa, and retired to the Mahendra mountains, where he was visited by Arjuna. Tradition ascribes the origin of the country of Malabar to Parasu-rama. According to one account he received it as a gift from Varuna, and according to another he drove back the ocean and cut fissures in the Ghats with blows

of his axe. He is said to have brought Brahmans into this country from the north, and to have bestowed the land upon them in expiation of the slaughter of the Kshatriyas. He bears the appellations Khanda-parasu, 'who strikes with the axe,' and Nyaksha, inferior.'

PARĀVASU. See Raibhya and Yava-krīta.

PĀRIJĀTA. The tree produced at the churning of the ocean, "and the delight of the nymphs of heaven, perfuming the world with its blossoms." It was kept in Indra's heaven, and was the pride of his wife Sachi, but when Krishna visited Indra in Swarga, his wife Satya-bhāmā induced him to carry the tree away, which led to a great fight between the two gods and their adherents, in which Indra was defeated. The tree was taken to

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Dwarakā and planted there, but after Krishna's death it returned to Indra's heaven.

PARIKSHIT. Son of Abhimanyu by his wife Uttarā, grandson of Arjuna, and father of Janamejaya. He was killed by Aswatthaman in the womb of his mother and was born dead, but he was brought to life by Krishna, who blessed him and cursed Aswatthāman. When Yudhi-shthira retired from the world, Parikshit succeeded him on the throne of Hastina-pura. He died from the bite of a serpent, and the Bhagavata Purāna is represented as having been rehearsed to him in the interval between the bite and his death. Also written Parikshit.

PĀRIPĀTRA. The northern part of the Vindhya range of mountains. According to the Hari-vansa, it was the scene of the combat between Krishna and Indra, and its heights sank down under the pressure of Krishna's feet. Also called Pariyātra.

PARISHAD. A college or community of Brahmans associated for the study of the Vedas.

PARISISHTA. A supplement or appendix. A series of works called Parisishtas belong to the Vedic period, but they are the last of the series, and indicate a transition state. They "supply information on theological or ceremonial points which had been passed over in the Sutras, and they treat everything in a popular and superficial manner, as if the time was gone when students would spend ten or twenty years of their lives in fathoming the mysteries and mastering the intricacies of the Brahmana literature."-Max Müller.

PARIVRĀJAKA. A religious mendicant. A Brahman in the fourth stage of his religious life. See Brahman.

PARJANYA. 1. A Vedic deity, the rain-god or rain personified. Three hymns in the Rig-veda are addressed to this deity, and one of them is very poetical and picturesque in describing rain and its effects. The name is sometimes combined with the word vāta (wind), parjanya-vāta, referring probably to the combined powers and effects of rain and wind. In later times he is regarded as the guardian deity of clouds and rain, and the name is applied to Indra. 2. One of the Adityas.

PĀRSHADA. Any treatise on the Vedas produced in a Parishad or Vedic college.

PARTHA. A son of Pritha or Kunti. A title applicable to the three elder Pandavas, but especially used for Arjuna.