India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.5

c9.s1.5

*CULTIVATORS*—Pāṇini calls the husbandmen *kṛishīvala* (*Rajaḥ kṛishyāsuti-parishado valach*, V.2.112), a new word which had replaced the older Vedic term *kṛishṭi*, denoting people in general, as the most numerous class amongst them was the agriculturists (*Vedic Index*, I.183). *Kīnāśa*, another Vedic term (*Ṛigveda* IV.57.8; *Vedic Index*, I.159) for the tiller of the soil, is only referred to in a later *Uṇādi-sūtra* (*kliśerīch-chopadhāyāḥ kan lopaś-cha lo nām cha*, V.56).