Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s2.78

v2.c4.s2.78

1. Balhika is the name of a people in the Atharvaveda¹ where the fever (Takman) is called upon to go to the Mūjavants, the Mahāvṛṣas, and the Balhikas. The Mūjavants are quite certainly a northern tribe, and though, as Bloomfield² suggests, the passage may contain a pun on Balhika as suggesting ‘outsider’ (from bahis, ‘without’), still no doubt the name was chosen from a northern tribe. But the view of Roth³ and Weber,⁴ which Zimmer⁵ once accepted, that an Iranian tribe is referred to (cf. Balkh), is not at all probable. Zimmer⁶ shows that there is no need whatever to assume Iranian influence. See also Parśu.