Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.285

v1.c3.s20.285

Napāt in Vedic literature apparently has both the wider sense of ‘descendant,’¹ and the narrower one of ‘grandson’ in the Saṃhitās.² In the Brāhmaṇas the word seems hardly to have the sense of ‘descendant’ at all, while it denotes not only ‘grandson,’³ but also ‘great-grandson’ in the sequence ‘sons, grandsons, great-grandsons’ (*putrān, pautrān, naptṛn*).⁴ ‘Grandson’ is also expressed by Pautra (‘son’s son’) in the Atharvaveda and later,⁵ while the sense of ‘great-grandson’ is accurately conveyed as early as the Rigveda⁶ by Pra-napāt, used beside Napāt, ‘grandson.’ Naptī, the feminine, is practically limited to the Saṃhitās,⁷ and denotes ‘daughter.’ The use in the Veda throws no light on the original use of the word.⁸