MPPSC 2019 Prelims Paper-I · Question 41 of 99

Correct — D, Traders. In the Rigveda the Panis are a wealthy, cattle-owning people repeatedly portrayed as misers who hoard riches and refuse sacrifice; historians identify them with the trading/merchant community (the term is linked to the later vanik / baniya, 'merchant'). So they represent the class of traders, not a priestly or artisan group.

• (a)Priests — The priestly class of the Rigveda were the Brahmins (the hotr and purohita who performed the yajna); the Panis are cast as their opposite — people who withhold gifts and offerings.
• (b)Ironsmiths — Iron (krishna/shyama ayas) is unknown to the Rigveda and appears only in the Later Vedic age, so a distinct class of iron-smiths in Rigvedic times is anachronistic.
• (c)Goldsmiths — Although the Panis are associated with hoarded wealth, they are remembered as traders/wealth-hoarders, not as a guild of goldsmiths.

The Panis are one of the recurring 'others' of the Rigveda — a rich, cattle-owning people shown as misers who neither worship the Vedic gods nor share their wealth with priests. Most historians read them as a trading or merchant community, and the name survives in the later word vanik ('trader'). They are best known from the Vala legend, in which they steal and hide cattle.

Exams test whether you can drop an unfamiliar Vedic term into the right social box. 'Pani' sounds ritual, but it is not a priestly word — armour-plate it as wealth-hoarding traders. The other options are either a different class (priests) or a craft that belongs to a later age (iron).

• Panis: a wealthy, cattle-rich people in the Rigveda, usually identified as traders/merchants.
• In the Vala legend the Panis hide the cows; Indra sends his messenger Sarama to recover them.
• They are criticised for miserliness — hoarding wealth and withholding offerings and gifts.
• Iron is absent from the Rigveda (it appears in the Later Vedic period), so 'ironsmiths' is anachronistic.

• Reading 'Pani' as priests because the word sounds ritual
• Assuming iron and iron-smiths existed already in Rigvedic times

MPPSC and UPSC test single Vedic terms — 'who/what were the X' — so fix Pani (traders), gavishti (search for cattle/war) and nishka (gold ornament used as wealth).

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Vala legend of the Rigveda, which messenger of Indra was sent to the Panis to recover the stolen cattle?

  • (a)Sarama
  • (b)Saranyu
  • (c)Vak
  • (d)Ushas

  Answer(a) Sarama — Indra's divine messenger (a she-dog) who tracks the Panis.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Iron (krishna ayas) in India is first clearly attested in which phase?

  • (a)Rigvedic period
  • (b)Later Vedic period
  • (c)Harappan Civilization
  • (d)Mesolithic age

  Answer(b) Later Vedic period — which is why 'ironsmiths' cannot be a Rigvedic class.