Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s6: Ṛ

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s6

Language: English

Ṛ

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1. Ṛkṣa, ‘bear,’ is found only once in the Rigveda,¹ and seldom later,² the animal having evidently been scarce in the regions occupied by the Vedic Indians. Not more frequent³ is the use of the word in the plural to denote the ‘seven bears,’ later called the ‘seven Ṛṣis,’⁴ the constellation of the ‘Great Bear’ (ἄρκτος, ursa).

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¹ v. 56, 3.

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² Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, iii. 14, 17; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxiv. 36; Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, i. 184. Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 81.

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³ Rv. i. 24, 10; Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, ii. 1, 2, 4; Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, i. 11, 2. Cf. Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, 3, 422.

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⁴ Cf. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 144 (D).

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2. Ṛkṣa is the name of a patron mentioned in one verse of a Dānastuti (‘Praise of Gifts’) in the Rigveda,¹ his son being referred to in the next verse as Ārkṣa.

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¹ viii. 68, 15. Cf. Ludwig, Translation of the Rigveda, 3, 163.

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Ṛkṣākā is a word occurring once in an obscure passage of the Atharvaveda.¹ The sense is quite unknown. Weber² thinks it refers to the ‘milky way,’ but his view rests on no evidence. Whitney³ despairs of the passage.

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¹ xviii. 2, 31.

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² Festgruss an Roth, 138, n. 2; Berlin Catalogue, 2, 59, n.; Proceedings of the Berlin Academy, 1895, 856.

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³ Translation of the Atharvaveda, 840.

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Rkṣikā, a word found in the Atharvaveda,¹ the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā,² and the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,³ appears to denote a demon. Harisvāmin, however, in his commentary on the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, connects the word with Rkṣa, as meaning ‘bear.’

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¹ xii. 1, 49.

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² xxx. 8.

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³ xiii. 2, 4, 2. 4. Cf. Eggeling, *Sacred Books of the East*, 44, 307.

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Rg-veda, the formal name of the collection of Rcs, first appears in the Brāhmaṇas,¹ and thereafter frequently in the Āraṇyakas² and Upaniṣads.³

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¹ Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, i. 32, and implied in Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 12, 9, 1; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, vi. 5, 4, 6; 8, 3; xii. 3, 4, 9.

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² Aitareya Āraṇyaka, iii. 2, 3. 5; Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, viii. 3. 8.

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³ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, i. 5, 12; ii. 4, 10; iv. 1, 6; 5, 11; Chāndogya Upaniṣad, i. 3, 7; iii. 1, 2. 3; 15, 7; vii. 1, 2. 4; 2, 1; 7, 1.

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Rjiśvan is mentioned several times in the Rigveda,¹ but always in a vague manner, as if very ancient. He assists Indra in fights against demoniac figures like Pipru and the dusky brood (*kṛṣṇa-garbhāḥ*). According to Ludwig,² he was called Auśija’s son,³ but this is doubtful. He is twice⁴ clearly called Vaidathina, or descendant of Vidathin.

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¹ i. 51, 5; 53, 8; 101, 1; vi. 20, 7; viii. 49, 10; x. 99, 11; 138, 3.

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² Translation of the Rigveda, 3, 143, 149.

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³ Rv. x. 99, 11. Cf. Auśija.

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⁴ Rv. iv. 16, 13; v. 29, 11. Cf. Macdonell, *Vedic Mythology*, p. 161 (C).

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Rjūnas is mentioned once only in the Rigveda¹ along with six other Soma sacrificers.

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¹ viii. 52, 2. Cf. Ludwig, Translation of the Rigveda, 3, 163.

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Rjrāśva appears in the Rigveda¹ as one of the Vārṣāgiras, along with Ambarīṣa, Surādhas, Sahadeva, and Bhayamāna, and as apparently victorious in a race. Elsewhere² in the Rigveda he is celebrated as having been blinded by his father for slaying one hundred rams for a she-wolf, and as having been restored to sight by the Aśvins, a legend of quite obscure meaning.

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¹ i. 100, 16. 17.

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² i. 116, 17; 117, 16. 17.

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Cf. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 52.

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Ṛṇa, ‘debt,’ is repeatedly mentioned from the Rigveda¹ onwards, having apparently been a normal condition among the Vedic Indians. Reference is often made² to debts contracted at dicing. To pay off a debt was called ṛṇam sam-nī.³ Allusion is made to debt contracted without intention of payment.⁴

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¹ ii. 27, 4, etc., usually in a metaphorical sense.

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² Rv. x. 34, 10; Av. vi. 119, 1.

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³ Rv. viii. 47, 17 = Av. vi. 46, 3.

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⁴ Av. vi. 119, 1.

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The result of non-payment of a debt might be very serious: the dicer might fall into slavery.⁵ Debtors, like other malefactors, such as thieves, were frequently bound by their creditors to posts (dru-pada),⁶ presumably as a means of putting pressure on them or their friends to pay up the debt.

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⁵ Rv. x. 34. Cf. Lüders, Das Würfelspiel im alten Indien, 61.

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⁶ Rv. x. 34, 4, seems to refer rather to the binding and taking away as a slave, though Pischel, Vedische Studien, i, 228, explains it as the binding of a debtor for non-payment, interpreting the obscure verse i. 169, 7, in the same way. But Av. vi. 115, 2. 3, may refer to debt, and if this is the meaning the allusion to binding to a post as a punishment is clear. See, however, Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 528, n. 1; Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 364, who interprets the hymn as referring only to sin. Rv. i. 24, 13. 15; Av. vi. 63, 3=84, 4; 121, 1 et seq., are general; while Rv. vii. 86, 5; Av. xix. 47, 9; 50, 1, refer to the binding of thieves in the stocks. Cf. Taskara.

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The amount of interest payable is impossible to make out. In one passage of the Rigveda and Atharvaveda⁷ an eighth (śapha) and a sixteenth (kalā) are mentioned as paid, but it is quite uncertain whether interest or an instalment of the principal is meant. Presumably the interest would be paid in kind.

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⁷ Rv. viii. 47, 17 = Av. vi. 46, 3.

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How far a debt was a heritable interest or obligation does not appear. The Kauśika Sūtra⁸ regards three hymns of the Atharvaveda⁹ as applicable to the occasion of the payment of a debt after the creditor’s decease. For the payment of a debt by a relation of the debtor the evidence is still less clear.¹⁰

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⁸ xlvi. 36-40. See Caland, Altindisches Zauberritual, 154; Bloomfield, op. cit., 528.

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⁹ vi. 117-119. The name for unpaid debt is in Av. vi. 117, 1, *apamityam apratittam*. In the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, iii. 3, 8, 1, *kusīdam apratittam*; in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, iv. 14, 17, and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, ii. 3, 1, 8, *kusīdam apratittam*; in the Mantra Brāhmaṇa, ii. 3, 20, *apradattam*.

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¹⁰ *Cf.* Rv. iv. 3, 13 (a brother’s sin or debt); Jolly, *Recht und Sitte*, 99, 100.

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Zimmer¹¹ thinks that payments of debt were made in the presence of witnesses who could be appealed to in case of dispute. This conclusion is, however, very uncertain, resting solely on a vague verse in the Atharvaveda.¹²

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¹¹ *Altindisches Leben*, 181. This suggestion is ignored by Bloomfield, *op. cit.*, 375, and Whitney, *op. cit.*, 304.

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¹² vi. 32, 3 = viii. 8, 21. *Cf.* Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 14, and see Jñātṛ. *Cf.* Zimmer, *op. cit.*, 181, 182; 259.

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Ṛṇam-caya, a prince of the Ruśamas, is celebrated in a Dānastuti (‘Praise of Gifts’) of the Rigveda (v. 30, 12. 14) for his generosity to a poet named Babhru.

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*Cf.* Zimmer, *Altindisches Leben*, 129; Bṛhaddevatā, ed. Macdonell, 2, 169, 174.

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Rtu, ‘season,’ is a term repeatedly mentioned from the Rigveda¹ onwards. Three seasons of the year are often alluded to,² but the names are not usually specified. In one passage of the Rigveda³ spring (*vasanta*), summer (*grīṣma*), and autumn (*śarad*) are given. The Rigveda knows also the rainy season (*prā-vṛṣ*) and the winter (*himā, hemanta*). A more usual⁴ division (not found in the Rigveda) is into five seasons, vasanta, grīṣma, varṣā, śarad, hemanta-śiśira; but occasionally the five are otherwise divided, varṣā-śarad being made one season.⁵ Sometimes six⁶ seasons are reckoned, hemanta and śiśira being divided, so that the six seasons can be made parallel to the twelve months of the year. A still more artificial arrangement⁷ makes the seasons seven, possibly by reckoning the intercalary month as a season, as Weber and Zimmer⁸ hold, or more probably because of the predilection for the number seven, as Roth⁹ suggests. Occasionally the word ṛtu is applied to the months.¹⁰ The last season, according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,¹¹ is hemanta.

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¹ i. 49, 3; 84, 18, etc.

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² *Cf.* Rv. i. 164, 2 (*tri-nābhi*), 48 (*trīṇi nabhyāni*); also perhaps the Ṛbhus as the genii of the three seasons and the three dawns. *Cf.* Macdonell, *Vedic Mythology*, p. 133; Hillebrandt, *Vedische Mythologie*, 2, 33 *et seq.*; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xiv. 1, 28, and the *cāturmāsyāni*, or four-monthly sacrifices performed at the beginning of the seasons in the ritual (Weber, *Naxatra*, 2, 329 *et seq.*).

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³ x. 90, 6. Hillebrandt, *op. cit.*, 2, 35, finds in Rv. v. 14, 4; ix. 91, 6, reference to three seasons in the triad *gāvaḥ* (? spring), *āpaḥ* (rains), *svar* (=*gharma*), and in the ritual literature (Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra, viii. 4, 2) in the threefold division into *ṛta, gharma*, and *oṣadhi*.

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⁴ Av. viii. 2, 22; 9, 15; xiii. 1, 18; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, i. 6, 2, 3; iv. 3, 3, 1. 2; v. 1, 10, 3; 3, 1, 2; 4. 12, 2; 6. 10, 1; 7, 2, 4; vii. 1, 18, 1. 2; i. 2; i. 7, 3; iii. 4, 8; 13, 1; Kāthaka Saṃhitā, iv. 14; ix. 16; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, x. 10-14; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 3, 5, 11; vi. 2, 2, 3, etc.; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 10, 4, 1; 11, 10, 4, etc. *Cf.* Rv. i. 164, 13. See also Weber, *op. cit.*, 2, 352.

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⁵ Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, xiii. 6, 1, 10. 11.

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⁶ Av. vi. 55, 2; xii. 1, 36; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, v. 1, 5, 2; 7. 3; 2. 6, 1, etc.; Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, i. 7, 3; iii. 11, 12; Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā, viii. 6; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxi. 23-28; Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 7, 2, 21; ii. 4, 2, 24; xii. 8, 2, 34; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 6, 19, etc. Cf. also Rv. i. 23, 15, as interpreted by Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. indu.

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⁷ Av. vi. 61, 2; viii. 9, 18; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, viii. 5, 1, 15; ix. 1, 2, 31; 2, 3, 45; 3, 1, 19; 5, 2, 8; perhaps Av. iv. 11, 9, and cf. Rv. i. 164, 1.

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⁸ Indische Studien, 18, 44; Altindisches Leben, 374.

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⁹ St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. ṛtu. Cf. Hopkins, Religions of India, 18, 33.

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¹⁰ Av. xv. 4; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, iv. 4, 11, 1; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xiii. 25; xiv. 6. 15. 26. 27; xv. 57, etc.

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¹¹ i. 5, 3, 13.

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The growth of the division of the seasons from three to five is rightly explained by Zimmer¹² as indicating the advance of the Vedic Indians towards the east. It is not Rigvedic, but dominates the later Saṃhitās. Traces of an earlier division of the year into winter and summer do not appear clearly in the Rigveda, where the appropriate words himā and samā are merely general appellations of the year, and where śarad¹³ is commoner than either as a designation of the year, because it denotes the harvest, a time of overwhelming importance to a young agricultural people. The division of the year in one passage of the Atharvaveda¹⁴ into two periods of six months is merely formal, and in no way an indication of old tradition.

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¹² Op. cit., 373.

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¹³ Hopkins, American Journal of Philology, 15, 159, 160; Weber, Indische Studien, 17, 232; Bühler, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 41, 28.

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¹⁴ viii. 9, 17. Cf. Zimmer, 372.

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Ṛtu-parṇa appears in a Brāhmaṇa-like passage of the Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra¹ as son of Bhaṅgāśvina and king of Śaphāla. In the Āpastamba Śrauta Sūtra² are mentioned Ṛtuparṇa-Kayovadhī Bhaṅgyāśvinau.

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¹ xx. 12.

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² xxi. 20, 3. Cf. Caland, *Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft*, 57, 745.

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Ṛtv-ij is the regular term for ‘sacrificial priest,’ covering all the different kinds of priests employed at the sacrifice. It appears certain that all the priests were Brāhmaṇas.¹ The number of priests officiating at a sacrifice with different functions was almost certainly seven. The oldest list, occurring in one passage of the Rigveda,² enumerates their names as Hotṛ, Potṛ, Neṣṭṛ, Agnidh, Praśāstṛ, Adhvaryu, Brahman, besides the institutor of the sacrifice. The number of seven probably explains the phrase ‘seven Hotṛs’ occurring so frequently in the Rigveda, and is most likely connected with that of the mythical ‘seven Ṛṣis.’ It may be compared with the eight of Iran.³ The chief of the seven priests was the Hotṛ, who was the singer of the hymns, and in the early times their composer also. The Adhvaryu performed the practical work of the sacrifice, and accompanied his performance with muttered formulas of prayer and deprecation of evil. His chief assistance was derived from the Agnidh, the two performing the smaller sacrifices without other help in practical matters. The Praśāstṛ, Upa-yaktṛ, or Maitrāvaruṇa, as he was variously called, appeared only in the greater sacrifices as giving instructions to the Hotṛ, and as entrusted with certain litanies. The Potṛ, Neṣṭṛ, and Brahman belonged to the ritual of the Soma sacrifice, the latter being later styled Brāhmaṇācchaṃsin to distinguish him from the priest who in the later ritual acted as supervisor. Other priests referred to in the Rigveda⁴ are the singers of Sāmans or chants, the Udgātṛ and his assistant the Prastotṛ, while the Pratihartṛ, another assistant, though not mentioned, may quite well have been known. Their functions undoubtedly represent a later stage of the ritual, the development of the elaborate series of sacrificial calls on the one hand, and on the other the use of long hymns addressed to the Soma plant. Other priests, such as the Achāvāka,⁵ the Grāvastut, the Unnetṛ, and the Subrahmanya, were known later in the developed ritual of the Brāhmaṇas, making in all sixteen priests, who were technically and artificially classed in four groups⁶: Hotṛ, Maitrāvaruṇa, Achāvāka, and Grāvastut; Udgātṛ, Prastotṛ, Pratihartṛ, and Subrahmanya; Adhvaryu, Pratisthātṛ, Neṣṭṛ, and Unnetṛ; Brahman, Brāhmaṇacchamsin, Agnīdhra, and Potṛ.

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¹ This is assumed throughout the Vedic texts, and is accompanied by the rule that no Kṣatriya can eat of the sacrificial offering (*cf.* Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, vii. 26): no doubt because only the Brāhmaṇas were sufficiently holy to receive the divine essence of the sacrifice into which, by partaking of it, the deity has entered in part.

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² ii. 1, 2. *Cf.* Oldenberg, *Religion des Veda*, 383.

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³ Darmesteter, *Le Zend-Avesta*, I, lxx et seq.

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⁴ Rv. viii. 81, 5.

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⁵ Cf., for the Achāvāka, Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, xxviii. 4; Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, vi. 14, 8, etc.; Bergaigne, *Recherches sur l'histoire de la liturgie védique*, 47; Oldenberg, *Religion des Veda*, 397, n. 2. The other three occur in the Aitareya and other Brāhmaṇas. See St. Petersburg Dictionary, *s.v.*

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⁶ Āśvalāyana Śrauta Sūtra, iv. 1, 4-6; Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtras, xiii. 14, 1, etc. In the Rigveda Sūtra the order of the four sets is Hotṛ, Brahman, Udgātṛ, and Adhvaryu. Sometimes a seventeenth priest is mentioned, but he was not usually approved, though the Kauṣītakins maintained him as the Sadasya. See Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, x. 4, 1, 19; Eggeling, *Sacred Books of the East*, 43, 348, n.; Keith, *Aitareya Āraṇyaka*, 37; Weber, *Indische Studien*, 9, 375.

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Apart from all these priests was the Purohita, who was the spiritual adviser of the king in all his religious duties. Geldner⁷ holds that, as a rule, when the Purohita actually took part in one of the great sacrifices he played the part of the Brahman, in the sense of the priest who superintended the whole conduct of the ritual. He sees evidence for this view in a considerable number of passages of the Rigveda⁸ and the later literature,⁹ where Purohita and Brahman were combined or identified. Oldenberg,¹⁰ however, more correctly points out that in the earlier period this was not the case: the Purohita was then normally the Hotṛ, the singer of the most important of the songs; it was only later that the Brahman, who in the capacity of overseer of the rite is not known to the Rigveda, acquired the function of general supervision hitherto exercised by the Purohita, who was *ex officio* skilled in the use of magic and in guarding the king by spells which could also be applied to guarding the sacrifice from evil demons. With this agrees the fact that Agni, pre-eminently¹¹ the Purohita of men, is also a Hotṛ, and that the two divine Hotṛs of the Āprī hymns are called¹² the divine Purohitas. On the other hand, the rule is explicitly recognized in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa¹³ that a Kṣatriya should have a Brahman as a Purohita; and in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā¹⁴ the Vasiṣṭha family have a special claim to the office of Brahman-Purohita, perhaps an indication that it was they who first as Purohitas exchanged the function of Hotṛs for that of Brahmans in the sacrificial ritual.

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⁷ *Vedische Studien*, 2, 143 et seq.

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⁸ Rv. i. 44, 10; 94, 6; viii. 27, 1, etc.

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⁹ Bṛhaspati is Purohita of the gods, Rv. ii. 24, 9; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 7, 1, 2; Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 17, 2; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, v. 3, 1, 2; but Brahman in Rv. x. 141, 3; Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, vi. 13; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 7, 4, 21. Vasiṣṭha is Purohita, Rv. x. 150, 5, of Sudās Paijavana, Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra, xvi. 11, 4; but Brahman of the Sunaḥśepa sacrifice, *ibid.*, xv. 21.

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¹⁰ *Op. cit.*, 380 et seq.

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¹¹ Agni as Hotṛ and Purohita occurs in Rv. i. 1, 1; iii. 3, 2; ii. 1, 1; v. 11, 2. His Purohitaship is described in terms characteristic of the Hotṛ's functions in Rv. viii. 27, 1; x. 1, 6. Devāpi is Purohita and Hotṛ, Rv. x. 98.

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¹² Rv. x. 66, 13; in x. 70, 7, *purohitāv ṛtvijā*.

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¹³ vii. 26.

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¹⁴ iii. 5, 2, 1, etc.

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The sacrifices were performed for an individual in the great majority of cases. The Sattra,¹⁵ or prolonged sacrificial session, was, however, performed for the common benefit of the priests taking part in it, though its advantageous results could only be secured if all the members actually engaged were consecrated (*dīkṣita*). Sacrifices for a people as such were unknown. The sacrifice for the king was, it is true, intended to bring about the prosperity of his people also; but it is characteristic that the prayer¹⁶ for welfare includes by name only the priest and the king, referring to the people indirectly in connexion with the prosperity of their cattle and agriculture.

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¹⁵ Oldenberg, 371.

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¹⁶ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxii. 22; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vii. 18; Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, iii. 12, 6; Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā, v. 5, 14, etc. Cf. Weber, *Indische Studien*, 10, 141 *et seq.*; 376 *et seq.*; Hillebrandt, *Ritual-litteratur*, 97; Oldenberg, *op. cit.*, 370-397; Ludwig, *Translation of the Rigveda*, 3, 224.

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Rṣya.—This is the correct¹ spelling of a word that occurs in the Rigveda² and the later literature³ meaning ‘stag,’ the feminine being Rohit.⁴ Apparently deer were caught in pits (ṛśya-da).⁵ The procreative power of the stag (ārśya vṛṣnya) was celebrated.⁶

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¹ It appears in Av. iv. 4, 7, as Ṛśa; as Ṛṣya in Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, iii. 14, 9. 18.

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² viii. 4, 10.

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³ Av. iv. 4, 5; v. 14, 3; i. 18, 4 (ṛśya-pad); Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxiv. 27. 37; Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 33; citation in Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra, viii. 25, 8, etc.

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⁴ Av. iv. 4, 7.

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⁵ Rv. x. 39, 8.

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⁶ Av. iv. 4, 5. Cf. Weber, *Indische Studien*, 18, 18; Zimmer, *Altindisches Leben*, 82; Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 150, 151.

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1. Ṛṣabha is the common name of the ‘bull’ from the Rigveda¹ onwards.² See also Go.

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¹ vi. 16, 47; 28, 8; x. 91, 14, etc.

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² Av. iii. 6, 4; 23, 4, etc.; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, ii. 1, 3, 2, etc.; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxi. 22, etc.; Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, xiii. 5, 18, etc.

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2. Ṛṣabha, king of the Śviknas, appears in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa¹ with the patronymic Yājñatura, as one of those who performed an Aśvamedha or horse sacrifice. He is also mentioned there² as having probably been the source of a saying of Gaurīviti Śāktya’s.

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¹ xiii. 5, 4, 15. Cf. Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra, xvi. 9, 8-10.

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² xii. 8, 3, 7.

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3. Ṛṣabha is mentioned in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (vii. 17) as a son of Viśvāmitra.

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Rṣi, ‘seer,’ is primarily a composer of hymns to the gods. In the Rigveda¹ reference is often made to previous singers and to contemporary poets. Old poems were inherited and refurbished by members of the composer’s family,² but the great aim of the singers was to produce new and approved hymns.³ It is not till the time of the Brāhmaṇas that the composition of hymns appears to have fallen into disuse,⁴ though poetry was still produced, for example, in the form of Gāthās, which the priests were required to compose themselves⁵ and sing to the accompaniment of the lute at the sacrifice. The Rṣi was the most exalted of Brāhmaṇas,⁶ and his skill, which is often compared with that of a carpenter,⁷ was regarded as heaven-sent.⁸ The Purohita, whether as Hotṛ or as Brahman (see Ṛtvij), was a singer.⁹ No doubt the Rṣis were normally¹⁰ attached to the houses of the great, the petty kings of Vedic times, or the nobles of the royal household. Nor need it be doubted that occasionally¹¹ the princes themselves essayed poetry: a Rājanyarṣi, the prototype of the later Rājarṣi or ‘royal seer,’ who appears in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,¹² though he must be mythical as Oldenberg¹³ points out, indicates that kings cultivated poetry¹⁴ just as later they engaged in philosophic disputations.¹⁵ Normally, however, the poetical function is Brahminical, Viśāmitra and others not being kings, but merely Brāhmaṇas, in the Rigveda.

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¹ i. 1, 2; 45, 3; viii. 43, 13, etc.

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² i. 89, 3; 96, 2; iii. 39, 2; viii. 6, 11. 43; 76, 6, etc.

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³ i. 109, 2; ii. 18, 3; iii. 62, 7; vi. 50, 6; vii. 14, 4; 93, 1; viii. 23, 14, etc.

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⁴ Geldner, *Vedische Studien*, 2, 151.

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⁵ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xiii. 4, 2, 8; 3, 5.

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⁶ Rv. ix. 96, 6, etc. *Cf.* Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xii. 4, 6, where pre-eminence is assigned to a Brāhmaṇa descended from a Rṣi.

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⁷ Rv. i. 130, 6; v. 11; 29, 15; 73, 10; x. 39, 14. So a poet is a Kāru (if from *kṛ*, ‘make,’ but usually derived from *kṛ*, ‘commemorate’), and makes (*kṛ*, Rv. ii. 39, 8; viii. 62, 4) as well as creates (*jan*, Rv. vii. 15, 4; viii. 88, 4) hymns.

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⁸ Rv. i. 37, 4; vii. 36, i. 9; viii. 32, 27; 57, 6, etc.

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⁹ Rv. i. 151, 7; Geldner, *op. cit.*, 2, 153; Oldenberg, *Religion des Veda*, 380.

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¹⁰ Geldner, *op. cit.*, 2, 154, cites the Dānastutis as characteristic of princes in the tradition of the Bṛhaddevatā, etc.

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¹¹ *Ibid.*, 154.

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¹² xii. 12, 6, etc.

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¹³ *Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft*, 45, 235, n. 3.

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¹⁴ Later on it was deemed quite normal and natural. See the story of Rathavīti Dārbhya, or Dālbhya, himself a royal seer, and Taranta and Purumiḷha, seers and also kings, in Bṛhaddevatā, v. 50 *et seq.*

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¹⁵ *Cf.* Garbe, *Philosophy of Ancient India*, 73 *et seq.*; Deussen, *Philosophy of the Upaniṣads*, 16 *et seq.*; Keith, *Aitareya Āraṇyaka*, 50.

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In the later literature the Rṣis are the poets of the hymns preserved in the Saṃhitās, a Rṣi being regularly¹⁶ cited when a Vedic Saṃhitā is quoted. Moreover, the Rṣis become the representatives of a sacred past, and are regarded as holy sages, whose deeds are narrated as if they were the deeds of gods or Asuras.¹⁷ They are typified by a particular group of seven,¹⁸ mentioned four times in the Rigveda,¹⁹ several times in the later Saṃhitās,²⁰ and enumerated in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad²¹ as Gotama, Bharadvāja, Viśvāmitra, Jamadagni, Vasiṣṭha, Kaśyapa, and Atri. In the Rigveda itself Kutsa,²² Atri,²³ Rebha,²⁴ Agastya,²⁵ the Kuśikas,²⁶ Vasiṣṭha,²⁷ Vyaśva,²⁸ and others appear as Rṣis; and the Atharvaveda²⁹ contains a long list, including Aṅgiras, Agasti, Jamadagni, Atri, Kaśyapa, Vasiṣṭha, Bharadvāja, Gaviṣṭhira, Viśvāmitra, Kutsa, Kakṣīvant, Kaṇva, Medhātithi, Triśoka, Uśanā Kāvya, Gotama, and Mudgala.

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¹⁶ Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 25; viii. 26; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 7, 4, 4; ii. 2, 3, 6; 5, 1, 4; vi. 1, 1, 1, etc.; Nirukta, vii. 3, etc.

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¹⁷ Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, i. 17; ii. 19; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 6, 2, 7, etc.

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¹⁸ Cf. Indische Studien, 8, 167.

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¹⁹ iv. 42, 8; x. 109, 4; 130, 7; Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 144.

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²⁰ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xiv. 24; Av. xi. 1, i. 24; xii. 1, 39, etc.

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²¹ ii. 2, 6.

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²² i. 106, 6.

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²³ i. 117, 3.

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²⁴ i. 117, 4.

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²⁵ i. 179, 6.

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²⁶ iii. 53, 10.

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²⁷ vii. 33, 13.

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²⁸ viii. 23, 16.

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²⁹ iv. 29. Cf. xviii. 3, 15. 16.

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Competition among the bards appears to have been known. This is one of the sides of the riddle poetry (Brahmodya) that forms a distinctive feature³⁰ of the Vedic ritual of the Aśvamedha, or horse sacrifice. In the Upaniṣad period such competitions were quite frequent. The most famous was that of Yājñavalkya, which was held at the court of Janaka of Videha, as detailed in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,³¹ and which was a source of annoyance to Ajātaśatru of Kāśī.³² According to an analogous practice, a Brāhmaṇa, like Uddālaka Aruṇi, would go about disputing with all he came across, and compete with them for a prize of money.³³

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³⁰ Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 345, 346; Bloomfield, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 15, 172; Religion des Veda, 216 et seq.

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³¹ iii. 1, 1 et seq.

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³² Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, ii. 1, 1 et seq.; Kauṣitaki Upaniṣad, iv. 1 et seq.

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³³ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xi. 4. 1, 1 et seq.; Gopatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 3, 8 et seq.; Geldner, Vedische Studien, 2, 185, 344. Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 340-347; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 3, 120 et seq.

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Rṣis.—The term ‘Seven Rṣis’ denotes the ‘Great Bear’ (see 1. Rkṣa) in one passage of the Rigveda,¹ and occasionally later.² This is probably a secondary use, instead of the seven R̥ṣas, brought about by the frequent mention of the seven R̥ṣis.

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¹ x. 82, 2.

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² Av. vi. 40, 1 (where, however, Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 310, merely renders it as ‘seven seers,’ and appears not to take it in a technical sense); Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, ii. 1, 2, 4; xiii. 8, 1, 9; Nirukta, x. 26, etc. Cf. Hillebrandt, *Vedische Mythologie*, 3, 422; Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, *s.v.*; Macdonell, *Vedic Mythology*, p. 144.

Linked texts (28)

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
Vājasaneyisaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Maitrāyaṇīsaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Śāṅkhāyanaśrautasūtra — Śāṅkhāyana, Sanskrit
Kāṭhakasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Nirukta — Yāska, Sanskrit
Āpastambaśrautasūtra — Āpastamba, Sanskrit
Baudhāyanaśrautasūtra — Baudhāyana, Sanskrit
Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa — Kauṣītaki, Sanskrit
Jaiminīyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Jaiminīyopaniṣadbrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Bṛhaddevatā — Śaunaka, Sanskrit
Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Chāndogyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Mantrabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Śāṅkhāyanāraṇyaka — Sanskrit
Aitareyāraṇyaka — Sanskrit
Gopathabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Āśvalāyanaśrautasūtra — Āśvalāyana, Sanskrit
Kauśikasūtra — Kauśika, Sanskrit
Pañcaviṃśabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Taittirīyāraṇyaka — Sanskrit