India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s2.65

c11.s2.65

The institution of *yajñas* had a vital economic interest for the officiating priests in that they received the *dakshiṇā* or sacrificial fee about the distribution of which instructions are contained in the law-books. We are told that the particular sacrificial guerdon was called after the name of the sacrifice for which it was paid (*Tasya cha dakshiṇā yajñākhyebhyaḥ*, V.1.95). Examples are cited of the particular fees paid at the Rājasūya, Vājapeya and Agnishtoma sacrifices, called *āgnishṭomikī*, etc., of which minimum units must have come to be fixed. The word *dakshiṇya* was applied to one whose merits entitled him to receive the proper *dakshiṇā* (V.1.69).