Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s17.409

v1.c3.s17.409

⁴ This is uncertain; the text of the Rigveda, vii. 18, 6, has Yakṣu, and the same word recurs in verse 19. On the other hand, the word Yadu would naturally be expected in verse 6, as Turvaśa is mentioned. Zimmer, *Altindisches Leben*, 122, says that Yadu occurs in vii. 18, but on p. 126 he cites Yakṣu in both places, evidently by oversight. Hopkins, *Journal of the American Oriental Society*, 15, 261, n., considers that Turvaśa, the Yakṣu, is a sarcastic expression, instead of Turvaśa, the Yadu, making Turvaśa, whom he regards as king of the Yadus, ridiculous as a member of an insignificant people, and alluding to him also as a sacrificial victim (as it were, *yaṣṭavya*, ‘to be offered’: cf. *puroḍāś*, ‘cake of sacrifice,’ in verse 6, as a pun on *purogās*, ‘leader’). Whether Yakṣu is used contemptuously for Yadu or not, it seems hard not to believe that the Yadus are referred to.