Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s4.175

v1.c3.s4.175

Upala-prakṣiṇī occurs once in the Rigveda,¹ where it designates the occupation of a woman, as opposed to that of her son, who is a poet (kāru), and to that of his father, who is a physician (bhiṣaj). Yāska² renders the word by ‘maker of groats’ (saktu-kārikā), and Roth,³ Grassmann,⁴ Zimmer,⁵ as well as others, connect it with the operation of grinding corn. Pischel,⁶ however, who points out that corn was not ground between two stones, but beaten on a stone with a pestle (dṛṣad), considers that Upala-prakṣiṇī denotes a woman that assisted at the crushing of Soma (cf. Upara). Von Schroeder,⁷ who more correctly points out that there is no objection to regarding upala as the mortar in which the corn was placed and then beaten with the pestle, renders the word literally as ‘one who fills the (lower) stone (with corn).’