India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.2

c11.s3.2

A mendicant subsisted on what he obtained by begging. The word *sarvānnīna* was applied to a person who accepted all kinds of food in his begging rounds (V.2.9). The *Kāśikā* states that a monk indiscriminately accepting alms from persons was so called. Some ascetics lived by gleaning corn (*Uñchhati*, IV.4.32). The *uñchhavṛitti* ascetics held stock of corn to last for some time. In *sūtra* VI.2.9. Pāṇini explains the word *śārada* as 'new'. Literally *śārada* should denote that which belongs to the Śarad season. The transition of meaning can be understood from Manu stating that a *muni* should gather his stock of corn twice a year, which was called *vāsanta* and *śārada* respectively after the names of the two crops harvested annually (*Manu*, VI.11). It is further laid down that he should renew his clothing and corn in the month of Āśvayuja, *i.e.* the beginning of autumn (*Manu*, VI.15). These fresh stocks obtained in Śarad were responsible for the secondary meaning of *śārada* as 'new'. The word *naikaṭika* (*nikaṭe vasati*, IV.4.73) is taken by the commentators to refer to a monk who had become a Vānaprastha, and in obedience to the rules of his order took his abode near the village outside it. Similarly *kaukkuṭika* is taken by the *Kāśikā* as a mendicant who walks with his gaze fixed to the ground to avoid harming life (IV.4.46).