Madhuvidya

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

Page 413

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M. A. MEHENDALE
would fit in the context very well.* vanar.gú, thus, expresses in a compound what ápyaḥ mygåh does in two separate words.
(2) In the RV 10.4.6 the adjective vanargú' wandering in forest' used with tá skarā would be superfluous."
(3) In the AV 4.36.7, since vanargú occurs after pisacá and stend, it should better be interpreted as a substantive referring to a specific class of beings, harmful to villages, and not as an adjective. After piśācá, which refers to a class of non-substantial beings, and stend, which refers to human beings, it would be quite appropriate to assume that vanargú refers to a class of animals, 'forest-bulls'.
(4) In the SV 6.4.9 vanärgavah, if taken as an adjective, would qualify kavayah. Now it is perhaps possible to think of the kavis going to a forest to praise Indra, may be in conformity with some kind of taboo, but is it on that account necessary to think of them as 'wandering in the forest? On the other hand, if we look to the adjective paruşásah occurring by its side and remember that in the RV 6.56.3 we come across the expression parusé gávi and in the RV 5.27.5 parusah uksánah, we will have little hesitation in interpret. ing vanargávaḥ as 'forest bulls'. The kavis who were offering praises to Indra are described as 'rough' or 'dust-coloured 'forest bulls.90
It is thus quite possible to get along satisfactorily with only one meaning of vanargú'forest-bull' and it is not necessary toj assume two or three meanings.
In the SV, vanérgu is accented differently from the RV and the AV vanargú. But it is extremely doubtful whether it means something different on that account. Sāyana's attempt to explain it as a Bahuvribi compound - vananiyah sambhajaniyah sevanīyā gavo yeşan to vanargavah fails both semantically and formally ( the accent in that case would have been on the first syllable vánargavan ). It is simple to assume some kind of accent shift. The available lexicons have not noted the difference in accent. (3) ekavit
The word ekavyt also is restricted to the Vedic literature and occurs there quite a few times. When the word occurs in forms other than the noni. sg., e g. ekavitam (acc. sg.) AV 13.4. 15, ekavrtah (nom. pl. ) AV 13. 4. 12, or ekavrtá (instr. sg.) TS 5.2.3.7, the stem ekavyt is not in doubt. But when it occurs as ekavit (nom. sg.)
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