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SKT. VISIPRIYA
327
name of the demon (dasa) Vrsa-siprá (RV. 7.99.4 ). This has been rendered differently as 'die Lippen eines Stieres habend' ( Grassmann ), «Bullengebiss (Geldner), and 'bullcheeked' (MW). To name a demon as having the lips or cheeks of a bull does not seem to be very appropriate as these limbs are not known to be specially characteristic of a bull. Geldner's attempt to give it a better look by rendering sipra as 'Gebiss' (sets of teeth ) does not help much. On the other hand, if sipra in this name is looked upon as standing for siśna, then Vrşasipra 'having the organ of a bull' can give good meaning. A reference to siśna while characterizing a bull is found in the Mbh. 14.10.29. In a certain context where some bulls are prescribed for different deities, a black bull with a moving organ is prescribed for Indra.
At this stage it may be considered if the word sipra itself cannot have the meaning 'organ' besides thc other mcanings attributed to it." In that case sipra can be related to śrópa and also, perhaps, sipi in sipivisti (a namic of Vişnu ). Thcy may be derived from a common root osip 'to project." In RV 5.45.h appcars another nainc of a demon Visišiprá. No attempt has been made to render the word in thc lexicons. It is analyscd as Visi
8. nilain cokşanın medhyam abhralabhantūri calacchiếnani malpradistan dvijendrah.
9. Geldner on RV 1.101.10 has a notc on sipra. According to him it means some part of the facc or mouth and specially the one which comes into operation while drinking Soma. He mentions for consideration 'nostrils' (already given by Yaska ( 6.17 ) and referred to above ), 'opened lips' and 'scts of teeth'.
10. In Alt. Gr. II 2 $ 687, p. 858 thc mcaning assigned to the reconstructed root sip is 'to wag'.
Madhu Vidya/75
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