Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s12.64

v1.c3.s12.64

1. Khila,¹ Khilya² appear to have the same meaning. According to Roth,³ these terms denote the waste land lying between cultivated fields; but he admits that this sense does not suit the passage of the Rigveda⁴ in which it is said that the god places the worshipper on an unbroken Khilya (abhinne khilye), and he accordingly conjectures the reading akhilya-bhinne, ‘land unbroken by barren strips.’ Pischel⁵ thinks that the meaning intended is broad lands, which were used for the pasturing of the cattle of the community, and were not broken up by cultivated fields. Oldenberg,⁶ however, points out that the sense is rather the land which lay between cultivated fields, but which need not be deemed to have been unfertile, as Roth thought. This agrees with the fact that in Vedic times separate fields were already known: see Kṣetra.