India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.61

c8.s14.61

VYUSHṬA, NEW YEAR'S DAY—Pāṇini refers to *Vyushṭa*, the new year's day, and to *vaiyushṭa*, the transanctions or payments made on that day (*Tatra cha dīyate kāryaṁ bhavavat*, V.1.96; *Vyushṭādibhyo'ṇ*, V.1.97). In the *Varāha Śrauta Sūtra* *pradosha* is the first *yāma* (3 hours) of the night, and *vyushṭa* the fourth (*Akulapāda Khaṇḍa* III); but in the *Arthaśāstra* (II.6-7, pp. 60 and 64) as Dr. Shamasastri has shown, *vyushṭa* denoted the New Year's day, *i.e.* the first day of the financial year commencing after the full-moon day of *Āshāḍha* (*Artha*. Trans. pp. 59, 64; Preface, xxiv; also the paper 'Vyushṭi or the Vedic New Year's Day' in the *Proceedings of the Second Oriental Conference*). Pāṇini seems to use *vyushṭa* in this special sense. Kauṭilya throws light on the nature of payments and business on this day. At the close of the financial year (*rāja-varsha*) on the Āshāḍhī, the Heads of the Accounts Department reported themselves at Headquarters with their registers in sealed boxes (*samudra pusta-bhāṇḍa*) and the cash balances (*nīvī*). There they declared the totals (*agrāṇi*) of the receipts (*āya*), expenditure (*vyaya*) and cash (*nīvī*) and then deposited the net revenue in hand. This illustrates the *vaiyushṭa* payments of Pāṇini (*tatra cha dīyate*).