Panini and Jats

Panini and Jats

The people who are called and call themselves Jats today are, no doubt, the most ancient Aryans generally settled in north and north-west India. Many writers have tried to prove their antiquity through the antiquity of their clan names, inseparably from the label Jat. It is not necessary that if the people are ancient, their label should also be most ancient. But unable to resist the temptation of tracing the same in sources, where it does not exist, has led to some amount of confusion. The confusion has got acute at the hands of those whose caste (label) patriotism scored over authentic historical facts. The label became more important than the people themselves. Ancient Sanskrit texts, particularly those of uncertain authenticity came handy to yield, mixed with some imagination, the desired crop. The most favourite alley in the otherwise very uncertain field has continued to be the Paninian text jaTa, jhaTa sanghAte. The text has been variously described as-sUtra of ashTAdhyAyI or a shloka in the ashTAdhAyI, the Roman transliteration being generally faulty, giving scope to miscarriage of intent. The effort of some persons in choosing to be precise in citing the reference number (3.3.19) from the ashTadhyAyI set one member looking for the originally cited text only to result in an enigma since the text at 3.3.19 is entirely different viz. akartari cha kArake sanjnAyAm. Let me try to explain things:
The ashTAdhyAyI (of eight chapters, each having four quarters where each quarter contains a number of sUtras arranged in a linguistically systematic manner. The sUtras, individually and many a times in combination of several sUtras by inference explain the formation of words of Sanskrit language, as it was in Panini’s time. The sUtras deal with the raw material in the form of verbal roots by adding affixes to obtain nominal forms of words.Panini has identified and after appropriate classification put the verbal stems (dhAtus) in a compilation called the dhAtupATha. Our two dhAtus are listed at serial numbers 305 (jaTa-) and 306 (jhaTa- sanghAte) with the simple meaning that each of the two are used in twe sense of a cluster. The sutra in ashTAdhyAyI at 3.3.19 simply says that the suffix ghanˆ comes after all verbal stems when the sense of root is denoted as having attained the completed state, e.g. prAsah, AhArah etc. But the condition is that such word thus formed shall not be the one which can be used as an agent in the nominative case(in kartA kAraka) e.g.our jATa if we take it as a Sanskrit term) can not be explained by the sUtra under reference. Though words like jaTA (hair locks), jaTila (intertwined (hair etc.) can be explained by the sUtra under reference. The net result is that Panini has nowhere in his works mentioned the word jATaas such. If we wish to manufacture it retrospectively as a Sanskrit word of ancient ages Panini’s sutras do not permit it. So we have to reconcile and look for the antiquity of the people we are talking about on the strength of their clan names and for the moment delink the label jATa for its own history and provenance. I would like to share that part of my findings some other time.