India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s1.9

c9.s1.9

The word *sītā* (IV.4.91) is as old as the *Ṛigveda* (IV. 57.6-7, and is used in the later Saṁhitās also, where it variously represents the personified deity of agriculture and also furrow. Gradually the former sense fell into disuse. In the *Arthaśāstra* *sītā* retains its older meaning of the goddess of agriculture only in one place and there also it appears to be in an old quotation: *Sītā me ṛidhyatāṁ devī bījeshu cha dhaneshu cha* (*Arth.* Text, II.24). Its more common sense in Kauṭilya is agricultural produce, specially from the crown lands. 'Whatever in the shape of agricultural produce is brought in by the Superintendent of Agriculture (of crown lands) is termed *sītā*' (*Arth.* II.15, p. 93; also p. 60).