India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.30

c9.s1.30

Farming is an operation vitally connected with Mother Earth and the farmers naturally attached great religious significance to the actual sowing of seed, for which purpose they selected auspicious days. Pāṇini tells us that one of the auspicious days for sowing was the full-moon day of the month of Agrahāyaṇa (*Āśvayujī Paurṇamāsī*, IV.3.45). The *Śarat-pūrṇimā* is the brightest and clearest moonlit night in the whole year and is still considered auspicious for operations connected with agriculture and plantation.