Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 86

SANSKRIT SAKHI
87
prayer'.25 In 1.5.1 we read á tv étā ni șidaténdram abhi prá gayata / Sákhāyaḥ stómavāhasah 'Come here, sit down, (and) sing (a song) with reference to Indra, you who ride together in a praise. song as a vehicle'. Similarly in 6.45.4 we find sakhāyo brahma. váhase !rchata práca gāyata 'you who ride together, praise and sing (for Indra) who comes in the vehicle in the form of a prayer'. The same picture of a god riding a chariot in the form of a praise-song and leading it appears in 1.173.9, ásama yátha suşakháya ena........ ásad yátha na indro vandanesthás turó ná karma náyamāna ultha so that we may be good riders with him .... so that Indra may stand in a praise-song guiding the praises as the clever worker (conducts) his taskʼ.26 The prayer and the sacrifice are also looked upon as a ship and the priests who, as though, sail in it together are called sakhāyaḥ. In 10.101.2 we read mandrá konudhvani dhiya å tanudhvan mávam aritrapáranīt krņudhvam / .... práñcam yajñám prá nayatā sakhāyaḥ / 'Make (the songs) agreeable, stretch forth (your) thoughts, fashion a ship which crosses (the river) with rudders.... (Oh priests) who sail together carry forward (your) sacrifice'.27
When sákhi is used in the context of finding a path, or going to or coming from a distant land, it gives better sense if it is interpreted as driving in the same chariot'. In 1.80.6 we read mandāná indro andhasaḥ sákhibhyo gātúm icchati 'Indra, delighted with Soma, seeks a way out for those who drive with him'.28 In 1.53.7 we find námyā yā indra sákhyā parāváti nibarháyo námuciņ námá mayinam 'When you, oh Indra, with Nami as your charioteer struck down Namuci, who knows magic, in the distant land'. And in 6.45.1 we have yá anayat parāvátaḥ súniti turváśam yádum / indraḥ sá no yúvā sakhā 'Indra who brought here Turvaśa and Yadu from a distance, leading them well, that Indra is our young charioteer.29
The interpretation of sákhi (sa-khi) suggested in this paper seems to derive support from the way it is placed between words
25. For priests being called sálhåyah J. Harmata has a different explanation. He
observes, "In the light of these data it does not seem an unlikely suggestion that the word sakhi- had been used since very early times, perhaps from the Indo-European period, to designate members of separate social groups. As a result of social development, when the different occupational groups became more and more sharply delimited, this particular use of the word was generally established in old Iranian, more precisely in the language of the Avesta and in old Persian. This development is reflected in the particularized meaning of the Avestan word hacay- 'member of a priestly college'". AO (Hun
garica) 5.195 ff (1955). 26. Also cf. 4.25.1; priests, busy with the performance of a sacrifice or engaged
in singing a praise-song, are often called sák hayaḥ, cf. 6.16.22, 3.29.9, 10.88.17, 6.26.8. 5.7.1, 8.1.16, 10.61.25, 5.45.6, 1.53.11, 4.17.18, 4.31.3, 7.31.1, 10.71.2.
7, 8, etc. etc. 27. Also cf. suparáh sunvatáh sákhá 1.4.10, 8.32.13. 28. Also cf. sákheva sákiye gåtuvíttamo bhava 9.104.5. 29. yéşam indro yúva schłcha also occurs in 8.45.1, 2, 3.
Madhu Vidyā/61