Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 196

SAYANA'S INTERPRETATION OF DAURGAHÉ BADHYA MANE...
It is not clear why scholars' have not objected to the commentators' interpretation of daurgaha as something different from a horse. There is nothing in the stanzas, whether Ṛgvedic or Itihasa, to warrant the interpretation of daurgaha as 'Durgaha's son' (Säy.) or as 'one born in the family of Durgaha' (Ven.). Sāyaṇa was led to his interpretation of the Itihasa-stanzas probably because he construed the word paryau in the second line with bandhanasthite in the first, and secondly because it was the queen, and not the king, who honoured the seven sages on their arrival and then offered a sacrifice as advised by them. He therefore felt that since the king was bound by fetters he was not free to do anything.
But the above interpretation of the stanzas shows that Sayana's construing is wrong and his presumption unnecessary. According to the Itihasa the king's sacrifice was in progress when the sages arrived and he must have been busy with it and therefore there was nothing unusual in Purukutsani's taking the lead to honour the sages.
Moreover, as has been already recognized by scholars, the Indian tradition is clearly in favour of interpreting daurgaha as a horse. The Rgveda stanza is quoted in the Sat. Br. 13.5.4.5 among the Gathas which record different types of horse-sacrifice performed by kings in ancient times. There can therefore be no doubt that for the author of the Sat. Br. in this context daurgaha referred to the 'horse' bound for the sacrifice. And he also says in so many words that Purukutsa of the Ikşvāku familiy offered a sacrifice with the daurgaha."
Next, daurgaha occurs among the synonyms of horse in the Nighan1.14.
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Since E. SIEG, Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda, 1902, 97. He has drawn attention to the fact that the Itihasa-stanzas also find place in the Nitimanjari (on st. 77) of Dyå Dviveda. ⚫téna ha purukutsó daurgaheṇéja alkṣvāko rájā.
Madhu Vidya/171