Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s8.27

v1.c3.s8.27

Aiṣā-vīra.—The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa once¹ refers to the Aiṣā-vīras as officiating at a sacrifice, with the implication that they were bad sacrificers. Sāyaṇa regards the word as a proper name (‘descendants of Eṣavīra’), denoting the members of a despised family. But Roth may be right in explaining the word both in the passage mentioned above and elsewhere as meaning ‘weak’² or ‘insignificant man.’³