PADA The Pada text of the Vedas, or of any other work, is one in which each word (pada) stands separate and distinct, not joined with the next according to the rules of sandhi (coalition). See Patha.

PADMA, PADMAVATl A name of Lakshmi.

PADMAVATl Name of a city. It would seem, from the mention made of it in the drama Malati Madhava, to lie in the Vindhya Mountains.

PADMA-KALPA The last expired kalpa or year of Brahma.

PADMA-PURANA, PADMA-PURANA This purana generally stands second in the list of Puranas, and is thus described: - "That which contains an account of the period when the world was a golden lotus (padma), and of all the occurrences of that time, is, therefore, called Padma by the wise. It contains 55,000 stanzas." The work is divided into five books or Khandas: - "(1.) Srishti Khanda, or section on creation; (2.) Bhumi Khanda, on the earth; (3.) Swarga Khanda, on heaven; (4.) Patala Khanda, on the regions below the earth; (5.) Uttara Khanda, last or supplementary chapter. There is also current a sixth division, the Kriya-yoga-sara, a treatise on the practice of devotion." These denominations of the various divisions convey but an imperfect and partial notion of their heterogeneous contents, and it seems probable that the different sections are distinct works associated together under one title. There is no reason to consider any of them as older than the twelfth century. The tone of the whole purana is strongly Vaishnava; that of the last section especially so. In it Siva is represented as explaining to Parvati the nature and attributes of Vishnu, and in the end the two join in adoration of that deity. A few chapters have been printed and translated into Latin by Wollheim.

PAHLAVA Name of a people. Manu places the Pahlavas among the northern nations, and perhaps the name is connected with the word Pahlavi, i.e., Persian. They let their beards grow by command of King Sagara. According to Manu, they were Kshatriyas who had become outcasts, but the Maha-bharata says they were created from the tail of Vasishtha's cow of fortune and the Ramayana states that they sprang from her breath. They are also called Pahnavas.

PAIJAVANA A name of the King Sudas, his patronymic as son of Pijavana.

PAILA A learned man who was appointed in ancient days to collect the hymns of the Rig-veda. He arranged it in two parts, and must have been a coadjutor of Veda Vyasa.

PAKA-SASANA A name of Indra, and of Arjuna as descended from Indra.

PlLAKAPYA An ancient sage who wrote upon medicine, and is supposed to have been an incarnation of Dhanwantari.

PAMPA A river, which rises in the Rishyamuka Mountain and falls into the Tungabhadra below Anagundi. Also a lake in the same locality.

PANCHA-CHUDA A name of Rambha.

PANCHAJANA 1. Name of a demon who lived in the sea in the form of a conch-shell. He seized the son of Sandipani, under whom Krishna learnt the use of arms. Krishna rescued the boy, killed the demon, and afterwards used the conch-shell for a-horn. 2. A name of Asamanjas (q.v.).

PANCHAJANYA Krishna's conch, formed from the shell of the sea-demon Panchajana.

PANCHALA Name of a country. From the Maha-bharata it would seem to have occupied the Lower Doab; Manu places it near Kanauj. It has sometimes been identified with the Panjab, and with a little territory in the more immediate neighbourhood of Hastinapur." Wilson says, "A country extending north and west from Delhi, from the foot of the Himalayas to the Chambal" It was divided into Northern and Southern Panchalas, and the Ganges separated them. Cunningham considers North Panchala to be Rohilkhand, and South Panchala the Gangetic Doab. The capital of the former was Ahi-chhatra, whose ruins are found near Ramnagar, and of the latter Kampilya, identical with the modem Kampila, on the old Ganges between Badaun and Farrukhabad.

PANCHA-LAKSHANA The five distinguishing characteristics of a Purana. See purana.

PANCHALI Draupadi as princess of Panchala.

PANCHANANA ‘Five faced.’ An epithet applied to Siva.

PANCHAPSARAS Name of a lake. See Manda-karni

PANCHA-SIKHA One of the earliest professors of the Sankhya philosophy.

PANCHA-TANTRA A famous collection of tales and fables in five (pancha) books (tantra). It was compiled by a Brahman named Vishnu-sarman, about the end of the fifth century A.D., for the edification of the sons of a king, and was the original of the better-known Hitopadesa. This work has reappeared in very many languages both of the East and West, and has been the source of many familiar and widely known stories. It was translated into Pahlavi or Old Persian by order of Naushirvan in the sixth century A.D. In the ninth century it appeared in Arabic as Kalila o Damna, then, or before, it was translated into Hebrew, Syriac, Turkish, and Greek; and from these, versions were made into all the languages of Europe, and it became familiar in England as Pilpay's Fables (Fables of Bidpai). In modem Persia it is the basis of the Anwar-isuhaili and Iyar-i Danish. The latter has reappeared in Hindustani as the Khirad-afroz. The stories are popular throughout Hindustan, and have found their way into most of the languages and dialects. There are various editions of the text and several translations.

PANCHAVATI A place in the great southern forest near the sources of the Godavari, where Rama passed a long period of his banishment. It has been proposed to identify it with the modem Nasik, because Lakshmana cut off Surpa-nakha's nose (nasika) at PanchavatL

PANCHAVINSA See Praudha Brahmana.

PANCHA-VRIKSHA 'Five trees.' The five trees of Swarga, named Mandara, Parijataka, Santana, Kalpa-vriksha, and Hari-chandana.

PANCHOPAKHYANA The Pancha-tantra.

PANDAVAS The descendants of Pandu.

PANDU ‘The pale.’ Brother of Dhrita-rashtra, king of Hastina-pura and father of the Pandavas or Pandu princes. See Maha-bharata.

PANDYA Pandya, Chola, and Chera were three kingdoms in the south of the Peninsula for some centuries before and after the 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 Caesar. Its capital was Madura, the Southern Mathura. Pa1ldya 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 that 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 Sutras 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 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 minutest criticism; hence, as Goldstucker 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, west of the Indus, and so is known as salottariya. He is described as a descendant of Panin and grandson of Devala. His mother's name was Dakshi, who probably belonged to the race of Daksha, and he bears the metronymic Daksheya. He is also called Ahika. The time when he lived is uncertain, but it is supposed to have been about four centuries B.C. Goldstucker carries him back to the sixth century, but Weber is inclined to place him considerably later. Panini's grammar has been printed by Bohtlingk, and also in India. See Goldstucker's Painini, his Place in Literature."

PANIS 'Niggards.' In the Rig-veda, "the senseless, false, evil-speaking, unbelieving, un-praising, 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 Sarama (q.v.).

PANNAGA A serpent, snake. See Naga.

PAPA-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.

PARADAS 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.

PARAMATMAN 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. 

PARASARA 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. Speculations as to his era differ widely, from 575 B.C. to 1391 B.C., and cannot be trusted. By an amour with Satyavati he was father of Krishna Dwaipayana, the Vyasa or arranger of the Vedas. According to the Nirukta, he was son of Vasishtha, but the Maha-bharata and the Vishnu purana make him the son of Saktri and grandson of Vasishtha. The legend of his birth, as given in the Maha-bharata, is that King Kalmasha-pada met with Saktri in a narrow path, and desired him to get out of the way. The sage refused, and the Raja struck him with his whip. The sage refused, and the Raja so that he became a man-eating Rakshasa. In this state he ate up Saktri, whose wife, Adrisyanti, afterwards gave birth to Parasara. 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 Vasistha 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.

PARASARA-PURANA See Purana.

PARASIKAS Parasikas or Farsikas, i.e., Persians.

PARASU-RAMA ‘Rama with the axe.’ The first Rama and the sixth Avatara of Vishnu. He was a Brahman, the fifth son of Jamad-agni and Renuka. 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 Treta-yuga, for the purpose of repressing the tyranny of the Kshatriya or regal caste. His story is told in the Maha-bharata and in the Puranas. He also appears in the Ramayana, but chiefly as an opponent of Rama-chandra. According to the Maha-bharata, 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-rama as being struck senseless by Rama-chandra, and the Ramayana related how Parasu-rama, 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 command of his father, he cut off the head of his mother, Renuka. She had incensed her husband by entertaining impure thoughts, and he called upon each of his sons in succession to kill her. Parsu-rama 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. Parasu-rama’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 to the Brahmans. The origin of his hostility to the Kshatriyas is thus related: - Kasta-virya, a Kshatriya, and King of the Haihayas, had a thousand arms. 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 Karta-virya, cut off his thousand arms and killed him. In retaliation the sons of Karta-virya killed Jamad-agni, and for that murder Parasu-rama 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.’ 

PARAVASU See Raibhya and Yava-krita.