India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s6.t2.34

c8.s6.t2.34

In this context Kauṭilya does not actually use the name *maireya* for the liquid to be stocked in the royal storehouse, but the recipe leaves no doubt that high class *maireya* is intended. The *oshadhi* contents are the same, *viz.* the docoction of *meshaśṛiṅgī* and *pippalī* (*maricha* is left out as of minor importance); in the optional group in place of *triphalā* alone, we have greater variety in *āmalaka*, *āmra-phala*, *urvāruka*, *ikshu-kāṇḍa*, etc. In the enumeration of the sweet contents, in place of *guḍa* we have six varieties, of which *madhu* is also one. We can now understand the example *madhu-maireya* given in the *Kāśikā* on Pāṇini, VI.2.70. Honey like *guḍa* was also an ingredient from which the particular variety of *maireya* derived its name. We may imagine that both *guḍa-maireya* and *madhu-maireya* were ancient illustrations to Pāṇini's rule. The plural number of the Pāṇinian word *aṅgāni* also stands justified by its reference to as many as seven varieties of sweetening ingredients mixed with *maireya*, *viz.* molasses (*guḍa*), honey (*madhu*), sugar (*śarkarā*), sugarcane juice (*ikshu-rasa*), inspissated juice (*phāṇita*), sugar of jack-fruit (*panasa*) and of rose-apple (*jāmbava*).