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Mehendale: Vanargú
(taboo), and therefore had to be learnt in the forest, not in the village." But if the interpretation of vanargú suggested above is the correct one, it does give some ground in support of the original view of Winternitz. The verse refers to persons singing in the forest. This singing is more likely to refer to the ritual one than to the one done at the time of learning the melodies.
The Samaveda verse may be translated as: "Oh Indra, tawney are your beard (hair), and tawney your horses. Such as you are, the wise men, dust-coloured, singing in the forest, praise you."
81
A Sanskrit lexicon, it seems, will thus require two entries for this word: (1) vanargú (RV and AV) forest-bull' (vánar + gu < gó); (2) vanargu (SV) singing in the forest (vanár + gu< vga to sing ").
vanargu
25 But BR: 'Weise und Wilde'. Hence Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index 2. 241: "In the Samaveda the term is more generally opposed to civilized men (kavayah sages'; vanargavaḥ 'savages').
Madhu Vidya/45
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