Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.43

v2.c4.43

Puruṣa Mṛga, the ‘man wild beast,’ occurs in the list of victims at the Aśvamedha (‘horse sacrifice’) in the Yajurveda.¹ Zimmer’s² view that the ape is meant seems probable. According to him also, the word Puruṣa alone, in two passages of the Atharvaveda,³ refers to the ape and its cry (māyu); but this sense is not necessary, and it is not adopted by Bloomfield,⁴ though Whitney⁵ does not think the rendering ‘cry of a man’ satisfactory, the term māyu not being properly applicable to the noise made by human beings.