India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c9.s5.t1.13

c9.s5.t1.13

(5) *Kāṇḍa* (IV. 1. 23) is referred to as a measure for measuring the area of fields. The *Arthaśāstra* in the table of field measures refers to 1 *daṇḍa*=six *kaṁsas* or 192 *aṅgulas*, i.e. 12 ft. (*Arth.* II. 20, p. 107). *Dvikāṇḍī, trikāṇḍī rajjuḥ*, cited in the *Kāśikā* shows that *kāṇḍa* was a submultiple of *rajju*. The *Bālamanoramā* takes *kāṇḍa* and *daṇḍa* to be synonymous with a length of 16 *hastas* or 27 ft. The Jātakas mention the *Rajjugāhaka* officers connected with land-surveying (*Kurudhama Jat.* III 276). 1 *rajju* measure was equal to 10 *daṇḍas*. *Nivartanā* an ancient square measure for measuring the area of fields was equal to 3 *rajjus*. When *kāṇḍa* denoted merely a lineal measure it took the suffix *ṅīp*, as *dvikāṇḍī rajju*, but when a square measure or area of a field (*kshetrabhakti*) it took *ṭāp* in the feminine gender, as *dvi-kāṇḍā kshetrabhaktiḥ*.