Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.687

v1.c3.687

Sheep as well as kine were captured from the enemy.³ The Soma sieve was made of sheep's wool, and is repeatedly referred to (avi, meṣi, avya, avyaya).⁴ Considerable herds must have existed, as Rjrāśva is said⁵ to have slain one hundred rams, and in a Dānastuti (‘Praise of Gifts’)⁶ a hundred sheep are mentioned as a gift. The (meṣa,⁷ vṛṣṇi⁸) ram was sometimes castrated (petva).⁹ The main use of sheep was their wool; hence the expression ‘woolly’ (ūrṇavatī)¹⁰ is employed to designate a sheep. In the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā¹¹ the ram is described as ‘woolly,’ and as ‘the skin of beasts, quadruped and biped,’ with reference to the use of its wool as clothing for men and shelter for animals. Pūṣan is said¹² to weave raiment from the wool of sheep. Normally the sheep stayed out at pasture; in an obscure passage of the Rigveda¹³ reference appears to be made to rams in stall. Gandhāra¹⁴ ewes were famous for their wool. Pischel¹⁵ considers that the Paruṣṇī¹⁶ was named from its richness in sheep, parus¹⁷ denoting the ‘flocks’ of wool.