Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s4.177

v2.c4.s4.177

Manā is found in one passage of the Rigveda¹ in an enumeration of gifts, where it is described as ‘golden’ (sacā manā hiraṇyayā). It therefore seems to designate some ornament, or possibly a weight, and has accordingly been compared² with the Greek μνᾶ (Herodotus has μνέα), the Latin mina. All three words have been considered Semitic in origin, as borrowed from the Phoenicians³ in the case of Greece, from Carthage by way of Etruria or Sicily in the case of Rome, and from Babylon in the case of India. The identification as regards Manā is very conjectural, depending merely on the probabilities of Babylonian borrowing⁴ seen—e.g., in the legend of the flood, and in the system of the Nakṣatras. On the other hand, Manā may very well be identical with the word *manā* which occurs several times in the Rigveda⁵ in the sense of ‘desire’ (from the root *man*, ‘think’), and which may have in this one passage the concrete sense of ‘desirable object.’ It is to be noted that in Böhtlingk’s Dictionary a single word Manā appears, to which the only senses assigned are ‘wish,’ ‘desire,’ ‘jealousy.’