India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s12.6

c8.s12.6

*Upadhi* denoted the part of a wheel between the nave and the circumference to which spokes were fitted. The cartwrights take special care in the selection of wood to make *upadhi* and hence the special word *aupadheya* (V.1.13) became current. The axle is called *aksha* (V.4.74). In *sūtra* VI.3.104 Pāṇini refers to *kāksha* in the sense of an inferior (*kutsita*) axle. The inferiority may be due to diminution in its standard length, which according to the *Śulba Sūtra* of Āpastamba was 104 *aṅgulas* (=78 inches, or 6½ ft.) (*Vedic Index* II.206). Pāṇini also refers to inferior chariots (*kad-rathas*, VI.3.102), being below the standard size. As against this, were the *parama-ratha* (superior chariots), implied in *sūtra* IV.3.121, both on the authority of Kātyāyana and Patañjali (*Bhāshya*, I.1.72, *vārt.* 16, I.186). According to the *Āpastamba Śulba Sūtra* the dimensions of a chariot of standard size were: pole = 188 *aṅgulas*, 11¾ ft; axle=104 *aṅgulas*, 6½ ft.; yoke=86 *aṅgulas*, 5 ft. 4½ inches (*Āpastamba Śulba Sūtra*, Mysore edition, p. 95; *Vedic Index*, II.203). The epithets *kad-ratha* and *parama-ratha* became current in relation to some such specification of standard size.