India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s6.t1.28

c8.s6.t1.28

Milk products are called *gavya* and *payasya* (IV.3.160) of which curds, milk and butter-milk (IV.2.18; *dadhi-payasī* II.4.14) are mentioned as important food articles. *Phāṇṭa* as given in *sūtra* VII.2.18 has the sense of ‘made without effort’ (*anāyāsa*). The *Kāśikā* understands it as a hot decoction, but the epithet *anāyāsa* points to its old meaning of butter produced from the cream of the day’s milk (*ayātayāma*, *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, III.1.8), as opposed to *navanīta* churned from curds of the previous day’s milk, for which a new classical word, *haiyaṁgavīna* (V.2.23) had come into use in Pāṇini’s time.