Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.709

v1.c3.s21.709

Pāka-dūrvā is, in a verse of the Rigveda,¹ included with Kiyāmbu and Vyalkaśā among the plants used for growing on the spot where the corpse of the dead man has been consumed with fire.² The verse is repeated in the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka³ with the variant Kyāmbu. In the Atharvaveda⁴ the word is read Śāṇdadūrvā. Pākadūrvā is probably, as Sāyaṇa understands it, *paripakva-dūrvā*, ‘ripe or edible millet.’ Śāṇdadūrvā is explained by the commentator⁵ in various ways, as millet ‘having egg-shaped roots’ (*i.e.*, *śāṇḍa*, not *śāṇḍa*), or as ‘having long joints,’ with the additional remark that it was called *bṛhad-dūrvā*, ‘large millet.’ In the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, on the other hand, the commentary explains Pākadūrvā as small millet.