India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s4.1

c9.s4.1

Pāṇini refers to barter as *nimāna* (V. 2. 47), i.e. exchange of goods by agreement. What was given in exchange was considered as equivalent in price (*mūlya*) to what was received (*nimeya*). The *sūtra Saṅkhyāyā guṇasya nimāne mayaṭ* seeks to regulate the grammatical formation expressing the barter ratio, on the pattern that the price of a portion of one thing is equal to so many portions of the other. For example, *dvimayaṁ udaśvid yavānām*, "butter-milk is two-times the value of barley", *i.e.* two parts of barley is the price of one part of butter-milk (*udaśvit*). The comparison must be made with one portion of *nimeya* (thing to be bought) with several portions of the *nimāna*. The ratio must be x : 1, but never x : 2, or x : 3, *etc.*, in which x denotes the *nimāna*.