[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v1.c3.s9 # 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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.2) ¹ x. 89, 15. ### [v1.c3.s9.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.3) ² Translation of the Rigveda, 5, 209. ### [v1.c3.s9.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.4) ³ Vedische Studien, 2, 191, 192. ### [v1.c3.s9.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.6) ¹ Rv. vi. 9, 2. 3; Av. xiv. 2, 51; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vi. 1, 4, etc. ### [v1.c3.s9.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.7) ² Rv. vi. 9, 2, etc. ### [v1.c3.s9.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.8) ³ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xix. 80; Rv. x. 130, 2; Av. x. 7, 43, etc. ### [v1.c3.s9.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.9) ⁴ Rv. x. 26, 6, etc. ### [v1.c3.s9.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.10) ⁵ Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xix. 83. ### [v1.c3.s9.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.11) ⁶ Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā, xix. 80. ### [v1.c3.s9.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.13) ⁷ Av. x. 7, 42; xiv. 2, 51. Cf. Rv. i. 92, 3. ### [v1.c3.s9.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.16) ¹ Rv. viii. 69, 14, etc.; Av. iv. 14, 7, etc. ### [v1.c3.s9.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.17) ² Rv. viii. 77, 10. ### [v1.c3.s9.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.18) ³ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, ii. 5, 3, 4; xi. 5, 7, 5; Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 13. ### [v1.c3.s9.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.19) ⁴ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 14. ### [v1.c3.s9.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.20) ⁵ Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8. ### [v1.c3.s9.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.21) ⁶ Ibid.; Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, vi. 4, 15. ### [v1.c3.s9.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.22) ⁷ Ibid., vi. 4, 15. ### [v1.c3.s9.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.23) ⁸ Ibid., vi. 4, 16; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, xi. 5, 7, 5; Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8. ### [v1.c3.s9.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.24) ⁹ Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka, xii. 8. ### [v1.c3.s9.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.26) ¹ x. 85, 8. Cf. i. 173, 6; viii. 14, 5; ix. 71, 1. ### [v1.c3.s9.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.28) ³ Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, iv. 1, 1. ### [v1.c3.s9.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.29) ⁴ Av. vi. 138, 1. 2. ### [v1.c3.s9.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.30) ⁵ Rv. i. 173, 6; viii. 14, 5. ### [v1.c3.s9.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.32) ⁷ Altindisches Leben, 264. ### [v1.c3.s9.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.33) ⁸ Rv. x. 86, 8. ### [v1.c3.s9.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.34) ⁹ Rv. i. 167, 5 (of Rodasī). ### [v1.c3.s9.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.39) ² Taittirīya Saṃhitā, ii. 5, 3, 2. ### [v1.c3.s9.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.41) ³ \*Ibid.\*, vii. 3, 19, 1; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxii. 28. ### [v1.c3.s9.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.42) ⁴ Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vii. 3, 20, 1. Cf. Rv. i. 32, 5; Av. x. 7, 38. ### [v1.c3.s9.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.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](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9.44) ⁶ x. 97, 3. 15. Cf. Zimmer, \*Altindisches Leben\*, 57. ## Linked texts (10) - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg.10.89.15) — Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva.14.2.51) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit - [Taittirīyasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.krsnayajur*taittiriya.6.1.4) — Sanskrit - [Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.upanisad.mukhya.brhadaranyaka.6.4.13) — Sanskrit - [Vājasaneyisaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.suklayajur*vajasaneyi.19.80) — Sanskrit - [Śāṅkhāyanāraṇyaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.aranyaka.kausitaki.12.8) — Sanskrit - [Śatapathabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.satapatha.2.5.3.4) — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit - [Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.taittiriya.2.5.5.3) — Sanskrit - [Maitrāyaṇīsaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.krsnayajur*maitrayani.2.7.5) — Sanskrit - [Pañcaviṃśabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.pancavimsa) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s9) · Pramāṇa