India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.20

c8.s14.20

*Sāvana Month.* The reckoning of a *Sāvana* month consisting of 30 days is deducible from the phrase *shashṭi-rātra* (V.1.90), literally 60 nights equivalent to two months. Kauṭilya also refers to a period of thirty days and nights together making one working month, (*prakarma-māsa*, *Artha.* II.20 p. 108). In this arrangement the last day of the half and the full month need not coincide with *Amāvāsyā* and *Paurṇamāsī* which were the characteristic days or *parvans* of a lunar month. Pāṇini derives two special words *ardha-māsa-tama* and *māsa-tama* to signify the last day of the half-month, and the last day of the full month respectively (V.2.57). It appears that the need for these two terms arose as they were not synonymous with *Amāvāsyā* and *Paurṇamāsī*. The words *ardha-māsa-tama* and *māsa-tama* may be taken to refer to the fifteenth day and the thirtieth day of the *prakarma-māsa* or the civil month used especially in the case of government or public offices. Patañjali clearly acquaints us with the existence of a *bhṛitaka-māsa*, month by which the wages of labourers were reckoned. Both Kātyāyana and Patañjali interpret *sūtra*, IV.2.21 (*Sāsmin Paurṇamāsīti*) in a way so as to distinguish the lunar month ending with *Paurṇamāsī* from some different reckoning (*Bhāshya*, II.275). The *prakarma* month of Kauṭilya seems to be the same as the *bhṛitaka* month of Patañjali.