Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.494

v1.c3.s20.494

Nāva-prabhraṃśana, the ‘sliding down of the ship,’ is read in Whitney and Roth’s text of the Atharvaveda,¹ and has been connected by Weber² and others³ with Manor Avasarpaṇa, the name in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa⁴ of the northern mountain on which Manu’s ship settled on the subsidence of the deluge. But both Bloomfield⁵ and Whitney⁶ point out that this interpretation is highly improbable, and this view is accepted by Macdonell.⁷ The expression is analyzed as *na ava-prabhraṃśana* by the Pada text and the commentator alike, and is never found elsewhere with reference to the descent of a boat or ship.⁸