Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.582

v1.c3.s20.582

Ni-ṣaṅgin is found three times in the Rigveda,¹ where, owing to its following in one passage² the words sudhanvāna iṣumanto, ‘having good bows and arrows,’ the sense of niṣaṅgiṇaḥ as ‘having quivers’ seems quite certain. In the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā³ it is taken by the commentator Mahīdhara to mean ‘having a sword,’ a sense which is quite possible both there and in the other passages⁴ where it occurs. But the word far more probably means ‘having a quiver,’ for the bow was the Vedic weapon, not the sword (Asi).