India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.22

c8.s14.22

*Lunar Month*. The prevalence of a lunar calendar with a month (*chāndramāsa*) of 29½ days depending on the two *parvans*, *Amāvāsyā* and *Paurṇamāsī* was definitely known. It appears that in the *Ashṭādhyāyī* the *pūrṇimānta* basis of reckoning the lunar month was accepted. This is suggested by the fact that the name of the month was derived from that of the *Paurṇamāsī* falling in it, of which Pāṇini refers to *Āgrahāyaṇī* (IV.2.22), *Phālgunī*, *Śravaṇā*, *Kārttikī* and *Chaitrī* (IV.2.23). In one example the settlement of a debt claim is said to fall due on the *Paurṇamāsī* day (i.e. *Āgrahāyaṇī*, IV.3.50), this too pointing to *pūrṇimānta* reckoning. Moreover, the use of special terms *upa-paurṇamāsī* and *upa-paurṇamāsam* (V.4.110) meaning 'about the date of the month called *Paurṇamāsī*,' is more likely to have become current on the basis of a *pūrṇimānta* month, while no such idiom is available for *amāvāsyā*. Both Kātyāyana and Patañjali clearly accept *Paurṇamāsī* as the closing day of a month¹ (IV.2.35; II.277).