Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.547

v1.c3.s20.547

Nir-āla occurs once in the Atharvaveda,¹ where Sāyaṇa regards it as the name of a disease. Bloomfield,² with the Padapāṭha, explains it as two words, understanding nir as an elliptical imperative, ‘(go) out,’ with the vocative āla, a kind of weed. Whitney³ at first took āla to be a verbal form, but finally came to the conclusion that the expression is one word, *nirāla*, of unknown sense.