Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.662

v1.c3.s21.662

Paśu means ‘animal’ generally, including man. There is frequent mention¹ of the five sacrificial animals—the horse, the cow, the sheep, the goat, and man. Seven such domestic animals are spoken of in the Atharvaveda² and later;³ probably, as Whitney⁴ observes, merely as a sacred mystic number, not, as the commentator⁵ explains, the usual five with the ass and the camel added. Animals are also referred to as *ubhayadant* and anyatodant. They are further⁶ classified as those which take hold with the hand (hastādānāḥ), man (puruṣa), elephant (hastin), and ape (markaṭa), and those which grasp by the mouth (mukhādānāḥ). Another division is that of biped (dvipād) and quadruped (catuṣpād).⁷ Man is a biped;⁸ he is the first (prathama) of the beasts;⁹ he alone of animals lives a hundred years (śatāyus),¹⁰ and he is king of the animals.¹¹ He possesses speech (vāc) in conjunction with the other animals.¹² In the Aitareya Āraṇyaka¹³ an elaborate distinction is drawn between vegetables, animals, and man in point of intellect.