India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s4.3

c9.s4.3

Mention is also made of *kaṁsa* (V. 1. 25), *śūrpa* (V. 1. 26) and *khārī* (V. 1. 33) in connection with the purchase of commodities. Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar points out 'As these are clearly measures of capacity, the only inference possible is that such commodities were bought by means of these measures and most probably with grains which were the staple food of the province' (*Anc. Ind. Num.* p. 170). In several examples and counter-examples we find reference to other measures of weight used in bartering transactions, e.g. *dvyañjali*, *tryañjali*, purchased for two or three handfuls (*dvābhyām añjalibhyāṁ krītaḥ*, *Kāśikā* on V.4.102, *Dvi-tribhyāṁ añjaleḥ*). Similarly, an object purchased for two or three *āchita* measures was called *dvyāchitā*, *tryāchitā* (IV.1.22, *āchita* = 10 *bhāra* or 25 maunds). Pāṇini mentions *śaurpa* and *śaurpika* as applied to articles purchased for one *śūrpa* measure (V. 1. 26), to which Patañjali adds *dvi-śūrpa* and *tri-śūrpa* (II. 346, 348). The *goṇī* measure (I. 2. 50) was equal to two *śūrpas* and is mentioned in connection with barter in such phrases as *pañcha-goṇiḥ* and *daśa-goṇiḥ*, ‘purchased for 5 or 10 *goṇis*’ (I. 226), the articles so purchased being cloth according to the *Kāśikā* (I. 2. 50).