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In the course of a description of India Strabo makes the following statement, apparently drawn from a source other than theMemoirs of Megasthenes (Geogr. xv, C. 719): 
“they mention as philosophers in opposition to the Brahmans the Pramnai, who are addicted to wrangling and refutation; and [they say] the Brahmans study natural science and astronomy, but are derided by the others [i.e. the Pramnai] as impostors and fools.”
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1931 , pp. 285 - 290
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1931
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page 286 note 1 “The prominent characteristic of the Arhat is Wisdom, Prajñāa. It is by Wisdom that he crosses the ocean of existence ” (Kern, , Manuel of Indian Buddhism, p. 61)Google Scholar. The Pali Text Soc. Diet., s.v., defines panna (i.e. prajñā) as “intelligence comprising all the higher faculties of cognition ”, and points out that “ as tt. … it comprises the highest and last stage as third division in the standard ‘ Code of Religious Practice’ which leads to Arahantship or Final Emancipation”. It is hence extremely common, both in the popular and the technical senses. The Jain scriptures use pannā in very similar meanings; cf. Uttar, . xxiii, 25, pannā samikkhaēdhamma-taitarn tatta-vinicchiyarm” wisdom perceives the verity of the Law determined in verity”Google Scholar (cf. the scholastic deff. in Abhidhāna-rājêndra s.v.), Uttar, . ii, 32, adīṇō thāvaē pannarm “let him cheerfully confirm himself in wisdom”Google Scholar, and xxiii, 28, 34, etc. See also note 1 below.
page 287 note 1 For the simple adj. paññna only two examples are quoted by the Pali Text Soc. Diet., viz. Dhp. 208 (where it is glossed by the Aṭṭthakathā as lokiya-lokuttarapa
āya sampanna, “versed in both secular and transcendental wisdom”) and 375. But it is very common in compounds, of which the Diet, quotes 54 examples; most of these are possessive compounds, and so should properly come under the heading panna. In the Jain scriptures the simple adj. panna is often applied to sages, from Tirthaảkaras downwards, e.g. Sūyagad, . I, vi, 4 (of a kēvala-jnāni: tasāya jēthāvarā jē ya pāầā sē ầiccâầiccēhi samikkha pannē dīvē va dhammaả samiyaả udēhu)Google Scholar, and 15;Ṭhāầ, . V, 3Google Scholar; Uttar, . I, 28Google Scholar; XV, 2, 215; in composition also it is common, e.g. the possessive compounds mahā-p° (Uttar, . V, 1Google Scholar; XXII, 15, 18, etc.), visuddha-p° (ib. VIII, 20), ujju-p° (ib. XXIII, 26), āsu-p° (Sūyagad, . I, vi, 7Google Scholar; xiv, 4), jaga-bhūi-p° (ib. I, vi, 15), which strictly should be classified under the heading pannā; cf. also pannavam (Uttar, . VII, 13Google Scholar). Both Jains and Buddhists are peculiarly fond of the causal stem of pra-j⋯ā- and its derivatives, e.g. pa⋯⋯napēti, pa⋯⋯atti, pannatta, pannavaầā.
page 287 note 2 Cf. Kern, ut sup., p. 127, n. 3.
page 288 note 1 In the older Upaniṣads (Bṛh., Ch., Taitt., Ait., Kauṣ., Kēna, Kaṭha, Iśān., Māầḍ., Muầḍ., Praś., Śvēt., and Mait.) the subst. prajñā at first sight would seem to be common; but most of the examples are in Kauş., in which it is remarkably frequent (alone nineteen times; in composition, prajnâtman nine times, prajnâpta once, prajnā-mātrā once, adhiprajñam once). Elsewhere it is rare: four times it denotes the Cosmic Idea (Ait. V, 3; Bṛh. IV, i, 2; Śvēt. IV, 18; and in comp. prajñā-nētra, Ait. V, 3), twice it means vaguely the wisdom which the sage should acquire (Bṛh. IV, iv, 21; Praś. II, 13), and once it is characteristically used in the comp. strī-prajñā, “having only a woman’s intelligence”, contemptuously contrasted with the knowledge of Brahma-lore (Bṛh. IV, v, 1). Prajñāna occurs seven times, viz. Ait. V, 2, 3; Mait. VI, 31; Kaṭha II, 24, and in comp. as pr°-ghana, Bṛh. IV, v, 13; Māṇḍ. 5, 7; in Ait. and Mait. it denotes a minor category, in Kaṭha it is significantly applied to the inferior wisdom which will not enable the man of restless soul to win the divine gnosis; in Bṛh. and Māṇḍ., however, pr°-ghana is applied to Brahma. The adj. prajña means merely “conscious”, occurring in Ait. V, 4 (of ātman) and Māầḍ. 7, with the abstract subst. prajñatā in Bṛh. IV, i, 2; prājña is used in the same sense in Bṛh. IV, iii, 21, 25 (of ātman), Mait. VII, 6 (of ātman), but signifies the third state of consciousness in Māầḍ. 5, 11, and a wise man in Kaṭha, III, 13. The verb pra-jñā- appears in about twenty-six passages, but of these twenty-one are in Kauṣ.
page 288 note 2 In the Kashmir recension the line reads: aśōcyān anuśoōcaƣs tvam prājnavan nâbhibhāṣasē (see Schrader, F. O., The Kashmir Recension of the Bhagavadgītā, p. 25Google Scholar). With the utmost respect I differ in regard to this line from Professor Sehrader: it seems to me to be one of the cases where Kashmir has altered the old reading preserved in the vulgate because of its difficulty. The latter was the only one known to the author of the Mōkṣa-dharma (XVII, 19, prajnā-prāsādam āruhya, etc.), and is thus older than any manuscript evidence to the contrary. The lectio diffieilior, as usual, is to be preferred.
page 288 note 3 On the other hand, the author of Mbh. XII, xix, after depicting in lively terms the wrangling heretics who paraded their irreligious arguments in the assemblies (w. 23–4), contrasts them with the true sage’s, who are prajnān; etc. (v. 25). Is he moved by the same motive as the author of Kauṣ Up., or is he merely using the word without special point, as e.g. mahāprājna is used in III, liv, 14 ?
page 289 note 1 This passage (Kaṭha III, 13) is Yogic, and hardly fits the context. Yōga is not a part of the spiritual outfit of the Aupaniṣada, though I am not prepared to assert with Rai Bahadur Chanda, R. P.(Survival of Prehist. Civilisation of the Indus Valley, p. 29Google Scholar) that it is of foreign and non-Brahmanic origin.
page 289 note 2 E.g. Dhauli: nātisu saảpaṭipati [sa]jmana-bambhanesu saảpaṭipati mātā-pitususūsāvuḍha-susūsa. In Mahābh., Sabhā-p. V, 100 (Kaccij jñātin gurūn vrddhān dēvatās tāpasān api caityāảś ca vṛlcṣān kalyāṇān brāhmaṇāṃś ca namasyasi) the same list is given with the difference that for śramaṇas is substituted a more general term for ascetics, and the caitya-trees are added.