Madhuvidya

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

Page 274

166
M. A. MEHENDALE
it occurs in the sense of three raised places above the earth' referring to the three fire altars. The verse runs
daivya hótārā prathamá viduştara rjú yakşataḥ sám rcá vapustară / devấn yájantāv stutná sám añjato nábhā prthivyá ádhi sánuşu trisú //
"May both the first heavenly Hotrs, the better knowers and those having better forms, offer the sacrifice correctly with the rk; while offering sacrifices to gods at the right time, may they bring them (i.e. the gods) toegther at the navel of the earth, on the three raised summits.”
Though we do not come across in early literature trisnu or trisänulo as a compound formation and as a name of a mountain, other similar names of mountains are of frequent occurrence since early times. Thus trikakud or trikakubh 'having three summits' occurs as the name of a mountain in old literature.20
vársisthah parvatānāṁ trikakun náma te pitá | Av. 4.9.8.
“ The highest among the mountains, Trikakud by name, is your father,
(Oh Ointment).” yatra vā Indro Vrtram ahams tasya yad aksy āsīt tam girin Trikakudam akarot Sat. Br. 3.1.3.12. “When Indra killed Vrtra, that what was his eye, that he turned into mountain Trikakud." (This is observed while discussing the propriety of using the Traikakuda ointment for the eye of the sacrificer). The same name appears as Trikakubh21 in the Käthaka Samhita XXIII.1 cf. Indro vai Vītrám ahams tásya cákṣuḥ páräpatat tát Trikakúbham prá
visat / With this Trikakud, we may also compare such later names of the mountains as Trikūța, 22 Triśikhara, and Tribrnga occurring in the Epics and the Purăņas. 23
Next to the Sanskrit name of the hill, triraśmi. As seen from the Pkt. form, the original name of the hill was trisnu : trisānu. Now it seems fairly certain
19. Its equivalent triprstha, though not connected with a mountain, occurs already in the Rgveda, cf. 7.37.1 ; 9.62.17, 71.7, 75.8, 90.2, 106.11.
20. Trikakuda, As the name of a mountain, occurs in the various Puranas, cf. V.R. Ramachandra DIKSHITAR, The Purana Index, Madras, 1952.
21. trikakúbh. having three points' occurs also in the Rv. 1.121.4, but as an adj. of Indra's vajra (*); however, kakúbh occurs even in the Rgveda in the sense of the tops of the mountain" ef. avābhinut kukubhah párvatänām (4.19.4). "(Indra), struck down the tops of the mountains,'. For this meaning of kakóbh here, see LÜDERS, Varuna, p. 90; for references to trikakud, I am indebted to his note on kakúbh, kakúd, trikakud, kakuhá, pp. 89-92. For Trikakud as the name of a mountain ulso ef. Panini 5.4.147 trikakut parvate on which Käsikā observes 'na ca sarvas trisikharah parvatas trikakut / kim tarhi samjñaişā parvatavisepasya /
22. According to Arnarakośa, Triküţa and Trikakud are synonyms. cf. trikūtas trikakut saman / 2.3.1.
23. For references see DixSHITAR, op. cit., SORENSEN, Index to the Nanes in the Mahabharata, and D. R. PATII, Cultural History from the Vayupurāna, Appendix.
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