Considering the generalized use of pānī in Hindi and pāṇī in Marathi for all water, not just drinking water, it is conceivable that such a semantic development had also occurred in the medieval Sanskrit usage. In Marathi, we say "nadīlā pāṇī āle" (lit: water has come to the river) to describe the situation of a flood. It is the same word for water used for bathing or washing.

Madhav Deshpande

On Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 3:45 AM, Vitus Angermeier <vitus.angermeier@univie.ac.at> wrote:

I came across one occurrence, where pānīya denotes water in which plants grow: Ḍalhaṇa (12th cent.) - concerning Suśrutasaṃhitā 1.45.17 - glosses parṇī with pānīyapṛṣṭhajā (a plant originating from the water surface). Of course, this is not very early. A search with the Digital Corpus of Sanskrit might bring about more occurrences.

Vitus Angermeier

Am 03.09.2016 um 21:09 schrieb Martin Gansten:

Many thanks to Madhav Deshpande and Walter Slaje for the additional
information about buḍ/bruḍ/etc. The text from which my quotation was
taken most probably originated in or near present-day Gujarat, so the
Marathi vernacular may indeed be relevant.

I'm still wondering about the earliest use of pānīya to denote water to
swim (or drown) in, as opposed to drinking.

Martin Gansten

--
Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2-4/2.1
A-1090 Wien

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