India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.17

c9.s1.17

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS—The plough is named (*sīra-nāma*, VI.2.187) in several sūtras as *hala* (III.2.183; IV.3.124; IV.4.81; VI.3.83). *Lāṅgala*, a plough in the *Ṛigveda* and later (*Vedic Index*, II.231), was one of the synonyms of *sīra* referred to in *sūtra*, VI.2.187.¹ A large plough was called *hali* (III.1.117), which was also known as *jitya*, perhaps from its utility to break even the hardest ground and to reclaim waste land. (III.1.117). The two words *hali* and *jitya* are still preserved in the Avadhī dialect where reciprocal assistance in tillage is called *harī* or *jīta* (Patrick Carnegie, *Kachahri Technicalities*, Allahabad (1877), p. 14). This implied the lending of one's plough and bullocks to one's neighbour.