A Note on Pañca-kāla in Connection With Pañcarātra

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A Note on Pañca-kāla in Connection with PañcarātraAuthor(s): S. K. DéSource: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (Apr., 1931),pp. 415-418

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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONSA NOTE ON PANCA-KALA IN CONNECTION WITH

PANCARATRA

The significance of the difficult term panca-kdla used in

MaMbMrata, xii, 338,4 (Bombay ed.), does not appear to have

been satisfactorily cleared up. It occurs in the list of the

hundred names which Narada utters (along with the epithetor description pdncaratrika) in praise of Narayana in the

well-known Narayanlya episode of the epic. The full name

or title of the deity appears in the text as panca-kdla-Mrlr-pati,

explained by Nilakantha as the lord of the panca-kdla and

of the panca-kartr . Again, the devotees of Narayana,the Ekantins who worshipped him in the mythical &vetadvlpa,are also called (xii, 336, 46) panca-kdlajnas, apparently

meaning those who know panca-kdla ; and this passage,

though not commented upon by Nilakantha, has an obvious

connection with the passage under discussion, which

Nilakantha explains. We are not concerned here with

panca-Mrtr, which is interpreted, not very satisfactorily, by a

reference to BMgavadgitd, xviii, 14-15, where the five sourcesof a man's action are enumerated ; but Nilakantha thinks

that the panca-kalas or five times , of which Narayanais said to be the lord, are the day and night (ahoratra),

month (mdsa), season (rlu), half-year or solstice (ayana) and

the year (samvatsara). This interpretation is scarcely

convincing ; for, even if it applies to Narayana, who may be

supposed to preside over this temporal dispensation, it is notclear as to what the Ekantins have to do with a knowledgeof this division of time. There is, on the other hand, no

support for Grierson's equationl of panca-kdla with the

specific Pancaratra rules , which are connected with the

five times at which the five sacrifices (i.e. the daily offeringof the

Panca-Mahayajnasof

Gihyaand Smrti

works)are

1 Indian Antiquary, September, 1908, pp. 266 and 266, footnote 53.










PANCA-KALA IN CONNECTION WITH PANOARATRA 417

precise meaning of the term Pancaratra.1 Leaving aside

fanciful etymologies suggested,2 we need not discuss in detail

whether the term should be connected (1) with Purusa

Narayana's panca-rdlra sattra described in the &atapatM~Brdhmana (xiii, 6, 1) as lasting over five nights, or (2) with

the five (panca) principal topics or kinds of knowledge (rdtra,as the apocryphal Naradiya puts it) dealt with in the later

Pancaratra systemor

texts, or, again, (3) with the later dogmaof tho school which speaks of five-fold manifestation of the

supreme deity by means of his Para, Vyuha, Vibhava,

Antaryamin, and Area forms.3 But it is clear that the last

two (and other such) explanations of the term are connected

with later developments of the school or system, and cannot

be authenticated by anything contained in the descriptionof the cult in the epic itself. The original records of the cult

are not available, but in the absence of any other data, the

Purusa-Narayana hypothesis appears to be the most plausible

explanation. If this view is accepted, then it is not difficult

to connect the specific connotation of time, involved in

Purusa-Narayana's continuous sacrifice for five days and

impliedin the

designationPancaratra of the cult

itself,with

the obvious general signification of time in the term Panca

kala employed with reference to Narayana and his Ekantins.Is it possible that the Pancaratras had a mysterious fivo-dayrite in imitation of the mythical panca-rdtra sattra of the

original Purusa-Narayana, just in the same way as the

1 It is scarcely necessary to point out that, even if theirorigin mighthave been independent, tho Paiicaratras are apparently identified with

the Ekantins or Narayaniyas in tho epic. Apart from the fact that

Narayana himself is called Pancaratrika, wo are told (xii, 339, 110 f.)that the Pancaratras only intensified the cult introduced by Narada,

which must be tho doctrine explained to him by Narayana himself.2 A. Govindacarya Svamin in JRAS. 1911, pp. 940 f.8 P. Otto Schrader, Introduction to the Pancaratra, Adyar (Madras),

1916, pp. 24 f. Or tho term Pancaratra may bo supposed to refer to the

five forms ofworship

of thosystem, viz., abhigamana, updddna, ijyd,

svadhydya, and yoga, which Sankara montions (on Brahma-suira, ii, 2, 42)in his notico of the school.








418 URDU GRAMMATICAL NOTES

mythicalthree strides of Visnu, as a

personificationof

Brahmanic sacrifice, were imitated by the Brahmaijdosacrificer's three strides in the ritual ? Perhaps the

performance of five sacrifices at five times in honour of

Narayana by the legendary Ekantin, Uparicara-Vasu, has

something to do with such a rite.

S. K. Dri.

Dacca,2Gth July, 1930.

URDU GRAMMATICAL NOTES, II

(a) Gender of Nouns Ending in -a.

The rule that nouns in -a are masc, with the exception

of some Sanskrit words, all Hindi diminutives in -iya, andcertain Arabic abstracts, is only approximately correct.

I have made some lists which may be of interest. It mightbe claimed that one or two of the Hindi nouns are diminutives,but I do not think they can fairly be so described.

Hindi fern, nouns ending in -a:?

angiyd, bodice. garhayya, large pit.

jdngiyd, jdnghiyd, drawers. thiliya, earthen pot.

clidliya, betel nut. muniyd, amadavat.

sankhiyd, arsenic. maind, starling.

badhiyd, bullock, gelding. shamd, magpie robin.

bMt Mtayyd, a prickly plant. barvd, poor land.

And the proper names :?

Lanka, Ceylon. AjodhiydGanga, Ganges. Janiva, Geneva.

Jamnd, Jamna.

The following are worth adding, for they are so common

that the fact of their being Sanskrit is forgotten :?

jatd, matted hair. puja, worship.

ghatd, dark cloud. sabM, assembly.mala, necklace. day a, mercy.

sitld, smallpox.






A Note on Pañca-kāla in Connection With Pañcarātra

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