Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s1.12

v1.c3.s1.12

Ā-khyāna.—In the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa¹ we hear of the Śunaḥśepa Ākhyāna, ‘the story of Śunaḥśepa,’ which is told by the Hotṛ priest at the Rājasūya (‘royal inauguration’). The series of stories² used at the Aśvamedha (‘horse sacrifice’) during the year while the sacrificial horse is allowed to wander at its will is called the ‘cyclic’ (*pari-plavam*). The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa³ mentions also Ākhyāna-vids (‘men versed in tales’), who tell the Sauparṇa legend, elsewhere⁴ known as a Vyākhyāna. Yāska, in the Nirukta,⁵ frequently uses the term, sometimes in a pregnant sense as denoting the doctrine of the Aitihāsikas or traditional interpreters of the Rigveda.⁶