The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.53

c10.53

taken to have meant nothing more than a mantle and a girdle in primitive times and that the primitive people invested Orion with a dress similar to their own. When Orion came to be looked upon as a celestial representation of Prajāpati, Orion's dress must have attained the sacred character which we find preserved in the sacred thread of the Parsis and the Brāmans. I, however, know of no passage in the Vedic literature where *yajna* is used in the sense of a girdle, and hence the above suggestion must be considered as very doubtful. But it may be here mentioned that in Marāṭhī we use the word *jānve* to denote the sacred thread. This word is evidently derived from Sk. *yājna*, Prākrita *janno*. Perhaps we have retained only the first word of the long compound *yajnopavita*.