India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.31

c9.s1.31

(iii) *Reaping* (*lavana*, VI.1.140). The ripe grain¹ was cut by a sickle (*dātra* or *lavitra*, III.2.182; 184). The operation of mowing was called *abhilāva* (III.3.28, *Nirabhyoḥ pūlvoḥ*). In the present day dialects it is called simply *lāva*; at the time of *lāva* there is much buzzing activity in the fields and extra labour is engaged. The mowers were known as *lavakāḥ* (III.1.149). Pāṇini also refers to a special method of harvesting (VI.1.140, *Kiratau lavane*) expressed by the verb *upaskirati*, which refers to reaping, not from one end of the field to the other, but in an unsystematic manner. We learn from the *Kāśikā* that such a practice prevailed in the countries of Madra and Kashmir (*Upaskāraṁ Madrakā lunanti; upaskāraṁ Kāśmīrakā lunanti*). Some cereals such as *māsha* and *mudga* cannot be harvested without uprooting the whole plant and were called *mūlyāḥ* (IV.4.88, *Mūlamasy-ābarhi*). The stumps were weeded by a special kind of hoe called *stambaghna* (III.3.83).