Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s9: O

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s9

Language
English

O

v1.c3.s9.1

Ogaṇa is a word occurring only once, as a plural, in the Rigveda,¹ where it appears to indicate persons hostile to the seer of the hymn, and apparently opposed to the Āryan religion. Ludwig² regards the term as the proper name of a people, but Pischel³ thinks that it is merely an adjective meaning ‘weak’ (ogaṇa = ava-gaṇa), as in Pāli.

v1.c3.s9.2

¹ x. 89, 15.

v1.c3.s9.3

² Translation of the Rigveda, 5, 209.

v1.c3.s9.4

³ Vedische Studien, 2, 191, 192.

v1.c3.s9.5

Otu in Vedic literature¹ denotes the ‘woof’ in weaving, and corresponds to Tantu, ‘the warp,’ the roots vā,² ‘to weave,’ and tan,³ ‘to stretch,’ from which these two terms are derived, being used in parallel senses. In the process of weaving a shuttle (Tasara) was used. The ‘weaver’ is termed vāya,⁴ and the ‘loom’ veman.⁵ A wooden peg (Mayūkha) was used to stretch the web on, while lead was employed as a weight to extend it.⁶

v1.c3.s9.6

¹ Rv. vi. 9, 2. 3; Av. xiv. 2, 51; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vi. 1, 4, etc.

v1.c3.s9.7

² Rv. vi. 9, 2, etc.

v1.c3.s9.8

³ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xix. 80; Rv. x. 130, 2; Av. x. 7, 43, etc.

v1.c3.s9.9

⁴ Rv. x. 26, 6, etc.

v1.c3.s9.10

⁵ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xix. 83.

v1.c3.s9.11

⁶ Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā, xix. 80.

v1.c3.s9.12

The work of weaving was probably the special care of women.⁷ A metaphor in the Atharvaveda⁸ personifies Night and Day as two sisters weaving the web of the year, the nights serving as warp, the days as woof.

v1.c3.s9.13

⁷ Av. x. 7, 42; xiv. 2, 51. Cf. Rv. i. 92, 3.

v1.c3.s9.14

⁸ x. 7, 42; Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 5, 5, 3. Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 254, 255; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 5, 465.

v1.c3.s9.15

Odana is a common expression¹ denoting a mess, usually of grain cooked with milk (*kṣīra-pākam odanam*).² Special varieties are mentioned, such as the ‘milk-mess’ (*kṣīraudana*),³ the ‘curd-mess’ (*dadhy-odana*),⁴ the ‘bean-mess’ (*mudgaudana*),⁵ the ‘sesame-mess’ (*tilaudana*),⁶ the ‘water-mess’ (*udaudana*),⁷ the ‘meat-mess’ (*māṃsaudana*),⁸ the ‘ghee-mess’ (*ghṛtaudana*),⁹ etc.

v1.c3.s9.16

¹ Rv. viii. 69, 14, etc.; Av. iv. 14, 7, etc.

v1.c3.s9.17

² Rv. viii. 77, 10.

v1.c3.s9.18

³ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, ii. 5, 3, 4; xi. 5, 7, 5; Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 13.

v1.c3.s9.19

⁴ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 14.

v1.c3.s9.20

⁵ Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8.

v1.c3.s9.21

⁶ Ibid.; Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 15.

v1.c3.s9.22

⁷ Ibid., vi. 4, 15.

v1.c3.s9.23

⁸ Ibid., vi. 4, 16; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xi. 5, 7, 5; Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8.

v1.c3.s9.24

⁹ Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8.

v1.c3.s9.25

Opaśa is a word of somewhat doubtful sense, occurring in the Rigveda,¹ the Atharvaveda,² and occasionally later.³ It probably means a ‘plait’ as used in dressing the hair, especially of women,⁴ but apparently, in earlier times,⁵ of men also. The goddess Sinīvālī is called *svaupaśā*,⁶ an epithet of doubtful sense, from which Zimmer⁷ conjectures that the wearing of false plaits of hair was not unknown in Vedic times. What was the difference between the braids referred to in the epithets *pṛthu-ṣṭuka*,⁸ ‘having broad braids,’ and *viṣita-ṣṭuka*,⁹ ‘having loosened braids,’ and the Opaśa cannot be made out from the evidence available. Geldner¹⁰ thinks that the original sense was ‘horn,’ and that when the word applies to Indra¹¹ it means ‘diadem.’

v1.c3.s9.26

¹ x. 85, 8. Cf. i. 173, 6; viii. 14, 5; ix. 71, 1.

v1.c3.s9.27

² vi. 138, 1. 2; ix. 3, 8, where it is applied metaphorically in describing the roof of a house.

v1.c3.s9.28

³ Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, iv. 1, 1.

v1.c3.s9.29

⁴ Av. vi. 138, 1. 2.

v1.c3.s9.30

⁵ Rv. i. 173, 6; viii. 14, 5.

v1.c3.s9.31

⁶ Taittirīya Saṃhitā, iv. 1, 5, 3; Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, ii. 7, 5; Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā, xi. 56. The reading is uncertain. Bloomfield (see below) assumes *sv-opaśa* to be the correct form (‘having a fair *opaśa*’).

v1.c3.s9.32

⁷ Altindisches Leben, 264.

v1.c3.s9.33

⁸ Rv. x. 86, 8.

v1.c3.s9.34

⁹ Rv. i. 167, 5 (of Rodasī).

v1.c3.s9.35

¹⁰ *Vedische Studien*, I, 131, quoting Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, xiii. 4, 3, where *dvy-opaśāḥ* is used of cattle; but the sense may be figurative.

v1.c3.s9.36

¹¹ Rv. viii. 14, 5. Cf. Bloomfield, *Hymns of the Atharvaveda*, 538, 539; Whitney, *Translation of the Atharvaveda*, 348.

v1.c3.s9.37

Oṣadhi.—Roughly speaking, the vegetable world is divided in Vedic literature¹ between Oṣadhi or Virudh ‘plants’ and Vana or Vṛkṣa ‘trees.’ Oṣadhi is employed in opposition to Vīrudh to denote plants as possessing a healing power or some other quality useful to men, while Vīrudh is rather a generic term for minor vegetable growths, but sometimes,² when occurring beside Oṣadhi, signifies those plants which do not possess medicinal properties.

v1.c3.s9.38

¹ Rv. x. 97 and *passim*. Oṣadhi-vanaspati is a frequent compound, from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (vi. 1, 1, 12) onwards. The medicinal properties of plants account for the epithet ‘of manifold powers’ (*nānā-vīryā*) applied to them in Av. xii. 1, 2.

v1.c3.s9.39

² Taittirīya Saṃhitā, ii. 5, 3, 2.

v1.c3.s9.40

A list of the minor parts of which a plant is made up is given in the later Saṃhitās.³ It comprises the root (*mūla*), the panicle (*tūla*), the stem (*kāṇḍa*), the twig (*valśa*), the flower (*puṣpa*), and the fruit (*phala*), while trees⁴ have, in addition, a corona (*skandha*), branches (*śākhā*), and leaves (*parṇa*). The Atharvaveda⁵ gives an elaborate, though not very intelligible, division of plants into those which expand (*pra-stṛṇatīḥ*), are bushy (*stambinīḥ*), have only one sheath (*eka-śuṅgāḥ*), are creepers (*pra-tanvatīḥ*), have many stalks (*aṃsumatīḥ*), are jointed (*kāṇḍinīḥ*), or have spreading branches (*vi-śākhāḥ*). In the Rigveda⁶ plants are termed ‘fruitful’ (*phalinīḥ*), ‘blossoming’ (*puṣpavatīḥ*), and ‘having flowers’ (*pra-sūvarīḥ*).

v1.c3.s9.41

³ *Ibid.*, vii. 3, 19, 1; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxii. 28.

v1.c3.s9.42

⁴ Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vii. 3, 20, 1. Cf. Rv. i. 32, 5; Av. x. 7, 38.

v1.c3.s9.43

⁵ viii. 7, 4, with Whitney’s notes. Cf. Bloomfield, *Hymns of the Atharvaveda*, 579; Henry, *Les livres VIII. et IX. de l’Atharvavéda*, 58 *et seq.*

v1.c3.s9.44

⁶ x. 97, 3. 15. Cf. Zimmer, *Altindisches Leben*, 57.

Linked texts (10)