Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s19.291

v1.c3.s19.291

Dhvasra is named with Puruṣanti in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa¹ as giving gifts to Taranta and Purumīḍha. These two, being kings, could not² properly accept gifts which Brāhmaṇas alone could accept, but by becoming authors of a verse of the Rigveda³ they qualified themselves to accept them. The verse mentions the names in the dual as *Dhvasrayoḥ Puruṣantyoḥ*, ‘from the two, Dhvasra and Puruṣanti.’⁴ In the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa⁵ the names occur in the dual as *Dhvasre Puruṣantī*, a reading which is confirmed by the Nidāna Sūtra.⁶ The former is necessarily a feminine form, though Sāyaṇa, in his comment on the passage, explains it as really an irregular masculine. According to Roth,⁷ the feminine is a corruption based on the dual form in the verse of the Rigveda mentioned above; but the names may be those of women,⁸ as Benfey⁹ inclines to believe. Weber¹⁰ suggests that the two were demons, but this is, as Sieg¹¹ shows, quite unnecessary. Dhvasra is no doubt identical with Dhvasanti.