India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s5.19

c9.s5.19

Other measures mentioned are *pāyya* (III. 1. 129), *kulija* (V. 1. 55), *shashṭhaka* (V. 3. 51), the exact significance of which is not known. The *pāyya* seems to be the measure called *pāi* in Punjab and Rajputānā and *pyā* in the U. P., used for measuring grain and having a capacity of 5 to 7 seers. Its smaller unit of about 3 seers is called *pāyali* in Bombay.¹ In *sūtra* VI. 2. 122 Pāṇini regulates the accentuation of *pāyya* in a numeral compound. *Kulija* is mentioned in the *Kauśika Sūtra* (12 and 43). *Shashṭhaka* seems to be related to *shashṭhāṁśa* a sixth part, being the amount of grain taken by the king as tax. Its minimum unit seems to be a *droṇa* measure as indicated by the term *droṇa-māpaka*, an officer appointed to collect one-sixth share of the produce (*Kurudhamma Jāt.* III.276). *Vaha* (III. 3. 119) and *kumbha* (VI. 2. 102) are also mentioned without being specified as measures, but in the *Artha-* *śāstra kumbha* was 20 *droṇas* and *vaha* equal to 10 *kumbhas*.