History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.41

v6.c81.41

There are eight passages in the Ṛgveda in which the word ‘śucivrata’ occurs and is always applied to some god or gods In three passages VIII. 43. 16, VIII. 44 21, X. 118 1 ‘śucivrata’ is an attribute of Agni and Prof Apte renders it as ‘(Agni) with a blazing trail, track or sphere’ (p 421) He says ‘śuci’ is derived from ‘śuc’ (to shine or flame up), that the word ‘śuci’ can only mean ‘brilliant or flaming’, that the meaning ‘pure’ is purely figurative and secondary and is found only in about *six* or *seven* out of a total of over a hundred or more in the Ṛgveda when it is an epithet of ‘*manīṣā*, *stoma*, *mati* or *giraḥ*’. These remarks are mis-statements; ‘śuci’ in the sense of ‘pure’ is not so rare as Prof. Apte tries to make out (6 or 7 times out of 100). In one verse alone addressed to the Maruts (Ṛg. VII. 56. 12) the word¹⁹ ‘śuci’ occurs six times and should ordinarily be taken only in one sense in those six and can only mean ‘pure’, since ‘śuci’ is there applied to offerings (havya) and sacrifice In VIII. 44. 21 Agni is styled ‘śucir-vipraḥ’ and ‘śuciḥ’ and ‘kaviḥ’. The word ‘śuci’ occurs in that verse four times out of which ‘śuci’ as applied to ‘vipra’ and ‘kavi’ can only mean ‘pure or holy’. Vide II 27 13, where the *yajamāna* (sacrificer) is called ‘śuci’, I 142. 9 where the three goddesses Bhāratī, Iḷā and Sarasvatī are said to be ‘śuci’. Conceding for argument that the root ‘śuc’ originally meant ‘to shine or blaze’, the distinction of two meanings (primary and secondary) in ‘śuci’ had disappeared long before the Ṛgvedic hymns were composed, as Ṛg. VII. 56. 12 and other verses establish Vide Ṛg. III. 62. 5 (where Bṛhaspati is called śuci), I 181 2 (where the horses of the Aśvins are styled ‘śuci’), II 33. 13 (where the herbs or drugs of Maruts are spoken of as śuci), VII 49. 2 and 3 where waters are called ‘śuci’ and VII 89. 3 (where Varuṇa is addressed as ‘śuci’) In the above passages the word śuci in at least a dozen cases is clearly used in the sense of ‘pure’, is applied to offerings, sacrifices, drugs, horses, waters or rivers and is not restricted to *manīṣā*, *stoma*, *mati* and *giraḥ* as Prof Apte wrongly asserts Prof Apte minimises the number of times that ‘śuci’ means ‘pure’, and observes a discreet silence about its being an attribute of the physical objects mentioned above Therefore, there is no difficulty in holding ‘śucivrata’ as applied to gods meaning ‘whose ordinances are pure or holy’ In I 15 11 and I. 182 1 the word ‘śucivrata’ is an attribute of the Aśvins, in III 62 17 and VI 16 24 of Mitra and Varuṇa and in VI 70 2 of Heaven and Earth. Besides, we have the analogous word ‘śucikranda’ (the loud laud addressed to whom is pure) applied to Bṛhaspati in VII. 97 5.