India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s3.11

c9.s3.11

*VASNA*—In the Vedic literature *vasna* denotes the 'price' paid for anything, or its 'value' or the thing as an object of purchase, 'ware' (*Vedic Index*, II.278). Pāṇini discusses *vasna* in three *sūtras* (IV.4.13; V.¹.51; V.1.56), where its meaning is sale-price or value realised (*mūlya, Kāśikā*). In the first instance a *vasnika* trader was one who only owned a financial interest in the profits of the deal as contrasted with *kraya-vikrayika* (IV. 4. 13) who carried on actual business himself. Next a *vasnika* trader was named according to his *vasna* or share in the sale-proceeds (*so'syāṁśa-vasna-bhṛitayaḥ*, V. 1. 56), *e.g. sāhasra*, 'whose share of sale-proceeds is one thousand.' This refers to some kind of corporate business as was carried on by the *sāṁsthānika* or *sārthavāha* traders.