The Vedas

by Roshen Dalal

  Aukshagandhi is the name of an apsara as well as that of a plant. It is some fragrant plant but the exact identification is unclear.

  Baja is a plant used against the demon of disease; it may be some sort of a mustard plant.

  Gugguli, again an apsara and a plant, must be the same as the present Ayurvedic herb guggulu, which comes from the small tree (Commiphora wightii or mukul); guggul is the gum resin from the bark of this tree.

  Nalada is mentioned in the Atharva and other texts as a plant used for a garland. Naladi, the feminine version, is the name of an apsara. It may be identified with nala (Arundo donax), a wild grass that grows to a height of 6 m and has medicinal uses. Another option is Nardostachys jatamansi, whose root is used in Ayurveda for insomnia and related ailments, while the leaves are used as stimulants and antispasmodics. The plant grows in the Himalayan regions, between 3000 m and 5000 m, and has pink or blue flowers. According to Greek writers the Ganga flowed from the mountain where it grew. However its use as a garland suggests it was used for its sweet scent. Perfumes are still made from it.

  Nyastika has been identified with shankhapushpika (Andropogon aciculatus).

  Pata in the Atharva Veda and Kaushika Sutra is probably the same as patha (Cissampelos pareira), a plant used in Ayurveda for women’s ailments. Another alterantive is Clypea hernandifolia, also a medicinal plant.

  Pila in the Atharva is the name of an apsara and was probably originally the name of a fragrant plant like naladi and gugguli, two other apsara names in the same Atharva verse (4.37.3). Alternatively, it may be the same as pilu.

  Pramandani, an apsara in the Atharva, seems to be a sweet-scented plant known as pramanda in the Kaushiki Sutra.

  Sahadevi, mentioned in the Atharva, can be identified with Vernonia cinerea or Purple fleabane, a common weed found throughout India with a variety of uses. The juice is used to counter urinary incontinence; the leaves can be eaten; and its decoction is used to treat diarrhoea, stomach ache, colic, and cough. The plant saha may be the same as this.

  Sahamana may be the same as sahadevi or the Sanskrit samanga, the same as manjishtha, a medicinal plant, used in rheumatism, identified as Rubia cordifolia.

  Shana is a kind of hemp, probably Cannabis sativa or Crotolaria juncea; in the Atharva Veda, it is said to grow in the forest and is used like jangida as a remedy against the disease vishkandha.

  Taudi seems to be the name of a plant; it is associated with ghritachi, ‘dripping ghi’.

  Vihalha is also referred to as vihamla and vihahla.

  Arundhati, in the Atharva and other texts, is a medicinal plant. It was used to heal wounds, to fight fever, and to induce cows to give milk. It was a climber on trees such as plaksha, ashvattha, nyagrodha, and parna. Golden in colour (hiranya-varna), it had a hairy stem (lomasha-vakshana) and was also called shilachi; laksha seems to have been a product of it. Shilachi, like manjishtha (see above), has been identified with Rubia cordifolia, a herbaceous creeper that has medicinal uses and grows in the lower Himlayan ranges.

  Jangida is a healing plant; it is said to be produced from the juice (rasa) of ploughing (krisha); this may mean it was planted or that it grew in cultivated land; it is not clear what plant it is. The Dutch Indologist Willem Caland, based on the Kaushika Sutra, took it to be Terminalia arjuna. More recently, it has been identified with ashvagandha (Withania somnifera) which is extensively used in Ayurveda, or with a type of Himalayan mandrake, still used in magical rituals in Sikkim. It is considered the same as kattuchooti of Siddha medicine. However, Soma has also been identified with mandrake.

  Kushtha is mentioned many times as a healing plant. It grew mainly on the mountains, along with Soma, on the high peaks of Himavant, where the eagles nest, and was thence brought east to men. Like Soma, it grew in the third heaven under the famous ashvattha tree, where the gods used to assemble, and from there it was brought in a golden ship. It was a remedy for many diseases, and was also called nagha-mara and nagha-risa, and was said to be the offspring of Jivala or Jivanta and Jivalaa (the lively ones). It probably had aromatic qualities as it is classed with anjana or salve, and nalada or nard. Kushtha, still used in Ayurveda, is the same as Saussurea lappa; the dried roots yield oil with antiseptic, disinfectant, and anti-inflammatory properties; an extract of the herb is useful in bronchial asthma. It is generally found on the Himalayan hill slopes and in Kashmir. Jivala (Laurus cassia or Cinamomum cassia) and jivanta (Desmotrichum fimbriatum) are related plants.

  Narachi is perhaps a poisonous plant.

  Prishniparni, ‘having a speckled leaf’, was used as a protection against evil beings causing abortion. It has been identified with Uraria picta (Hedysarum pictum), an important herb in Ayurveda, or with Hermionitis cordifolia or a plant later called lakshmana, which is supposed to cure barrenness; or with Glycine debilis.

  Apamarga is an Ayurvedic herb, still in use, which can be identified with Achyranthes aspera, a weed found in dry places and wastelands from the seashore to 2100 m, throughout Asia, Africa, Australia, and America, known in English as the prickly chaff-flower. Apamarga has digestive, diuretic, and anti-inflammatory properties, and is especially used to treat inflammations of the internal organs.

  Tajad-bhanga is the name of a plant or tree, but its identification is unclear. It has been identified as the castor-oil plant known in Ayurveda as eranda (Ricinis communis) but it may be the Sanskrit taja, which is cinnamon.

  Further plants mentioned in the Brahmanas include:

  Ashmagandha (Physalis flexuosa or Withania somnifera), the later ashvagandha, an important medicinal plant

  Bimba (Momordica monadelpha)

  Praprotha, another plant used as a substitute for Soma

  Sahadeva, probably the same as sahadevi

  Sarshapa (mustard)

  Ushana, another plant from which Soma was prepared. (In Ayurveda, ushana is another name for pippali, Indian long pepper or Piper longum; it is a climber, grows all over, including in the central Himalayas; the fruit is used for diseases of the respiratory tract. It is an analgesic when applied locally for pains and inflammation and also a general tonic and hematinic.)

  Amala, also called amalaka, identified with amalaki or amla, Embilica officinalis, the myrobalan tree. (The fruit of this deciduous tree is extremely nutritious and a rich source of vitamin C.)

  Thus, by the Later Vedic period, a wide variety of trees, herbs, and plants were known. The area, even the mountainous regions, must have been extensively explored to discover these plants. Experiments must have been made to identify their medical uses. Other plants mentioned are either difficult to identify or were cultivated. The latter will be seen in Chapter 8.

  ANIMALS

  As in the Rig Veda, a division of animals into forest and village animals also occurs in the Atharva Veda, Yajur texts, and Brahmanas. There are other classifications of animals: as ubhayadant (with incisors above and below) and anyatodant (with incisors only on the lower jaw) and eka-shapha (whole-hooved) as well as kshudra (small), both referring to domestic animals. The horse and ass are eka-shapha; the sheep, goat, and ox are kshudra—this distinction corresponds with ubhayodant/ anyatodant. Another classification is between those that hold with the hand (hastadanah) and those that cannot. The former include purusha or man, hastin or elephant, and markata or ape.

  Pashu is a term used for both humans and animals. Thus, in the Yajur, five sacrificial animals (pashu) referred to are the horse, cow, sheep, goat, and man, to which the commentator adds the ass and camel.

  The Later Vedic Samhitas also contain numerous references to animals, which can broadly be divided into domestic and wild. The Yajur refers to a number of animals in the context of the ashvamedha, and many of these are difficult to identify.

  Animals in the Rig Veda continued to be known in the Later Vedic times. Thus domestic animals still included the cow, goat, sheep, horse, and dog. Cattle remained important. Goat milk was used and goats were said to have two to three young ones. Goats were looked
after by an ajapala or goatherd. There were also cowherds and shepherds. A wild (aranya) sheep is mentioned in the Yajur Vajasaneyi Samhita, hence sheep must still have roamed wild. The dog was now also known as kukkura. Horses continued to be important and horse races were held. In the Atharva, a white horse with black ears is said to have special value. The Shatapatha Brahmana states that horses were sometimes used to draw carts. Horse attendants are referred to as ashvapa, ashvapala, or ashvapati. Horses were controlled with reins (rashmayah) and halters (ashvabhidhani). Valuable horses were obtained from the region of the Sindhu (Indus) and the Sarasvati. Mahasuhaya (great horse) is mentioned in the later Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. It came from the Indus region (Saindhava). Thus passages in the Vedas and later texts indicate that horses were found in the region west of the river Yamuna, and were not imported.

  The camel, ox, ass, and buffalo were other domestic animals. The camel was still known as ushtra but dhumra was an additional term. The ox was called gavaya or go-mriga. Gaura (gaur) is also mentioned. Rasabha and gardhaba were terms for the ass or donkey. Gardhabi, a female ass, and mahishi, a female buffalo, are mentioned. Ashvatara or ashvatari were terms for a mule. Kubhra has been identified by Kuiper with a hump-backed bull. According to him, it is a word of Munda origin.

  The monkey may have been tamed, and tamed elephants are known. A hastipa or elephant keeper is mentioned. Markata, mayu, and purusha-hastin were other terms at this time for an ape or monkey, in addition to the earlier term kapi.

  Many wild animals too, mentioned in the Rig Veda, continue to be referred to. They include various kinds of deer and gazelle, jackal, rhinoceros, bear, hyena, hare, lion, wild boar, elephant, wolf, weasel, and mouse. Reptiles and amphibians such as the frog, iguana, crocodile or alligator, and snakes and poisonous insects such as scorpions are mentioned.

  In addition, other animals are mentioned, while some are known by alternative names. Several are difficult to identify.

  Nyanku and Kulunga are terms that possibly refer to gazelles, though kulunga has also been interpreted as a bird. Eni is a type of deer, possibly a female antelope. Prishata may be the spotted deer or chital. Harina, a deer or gazelle, is mentioned. Its horns were used for making amulets, and it was said to eat yava or barley. It was said to kill avaja or vipers. Ruru and rishya (stag) are terms still used for deer.

  While the lion was known earlier, the tiger (vyaghra) and panther (dvipin, the spotted one) are mentioned in the later Vedas. Halikshna, an ashvamedha victim in the Yajur, is thought to be some kind of lion by the commentators Mahidhara and Sayana. It may be significant that Halikshan is a mountain in Xingjiang, China, in the Tarim region.

  The rhinoceros was earlier known as parasvant (this identification is based on Pali sources, though others have suggested parasvant was a wild ass); in the later Vedas it was referred to as khanga or khadga. These animals were hunted; the Shankhayana Shrauta Sutra refers to a rhinoceros hide used as a covering for a chariot. Vardhranasa or vardhrinasa was, according to Sayana, another term for a rhinoceros.

  Nakula, a mongoose, is mentioned in the Yajur and Atharva Vedas. Its ability to fight snakes was known, and it was believed to know a cure for snake poison. Naga and mahanaga are terms used for both snakes and elephants, from the Brahmanas onwards.

  Other creatures mentioned in Later Vedic texts were tortoise (kurma, kashyapa), crocodile (makara, nakra), polecat (jahaka), a kind of wildcat (shitputa), porcupine (shalyaka, shvavidh), otter (udra), hyena (tarakshu), bat (jati), chameleon (krikilasa), boa constrictor (vahasa), python (ajagara), viper (svaja), and locust (shalabha).

  Some other possible identifications are as follows:

  Manthala, manthalava, and manthilava is, according to Mahidhara, a kind of mouse, while Sayana feels it is an aquatic bird.

  Panktra is thought to be a field rat.

  Kumbhinasa, ‘pot-nosed’, could be a kind of snake. Kundrinachi could be a bird or, according to Sayana, a house lizard (griha-godhuka).

  Ula may be a term for a jackal or hyena.

  Srijaya has been interpreted as a kind of bird, ‘black fly’ or ‘white serpent’ or black buffalo, depending on the versions of the text used.

  Nada may be a term for a bull; pashthavah and pashtauhi refer to the ox and cow, respectively.

  Kuririn is thought to be some kind of horned or crested animal.

  Makaka and mushkara are small animals; mushkara could be a kind of mouse.

  Shashayu, ‘following the hare’, is the name of some animal, which must have chased hares; one suggestion is a tiger, but this is unlikely.

  Vrishadamshtra has been interpreted as a house cat by the German linguist Karl F. Geldner but others reject this; damshtra is a word used for teeth, particularly those of a snake.

  Vyadvara or vyadvari is the name of an animal that gnaws or eats.

  Sharkota, is possibly a term denoting a serpent or scorpion.

  The Brahmanas mention a number of animals. Daka seems to mean ‘a vicious ram’; durvaraha is a wild boar; dviretas (‘having double seed’) refers to both the ass and mare; gaja, a common name for the elephant in the epics and later, first appears in the Adbhuta Brahmna; shukladant in the Aitareya Brahmana, meaning ‘white-tusked’, refers to a wild elephant; machala is a type of dog found in Vidarbha; mahaja is a great aja or goat, probably a wild goat, larger than the domestic; and srigala is a term for a jackal in the Shatapatha Brahmana.

  A number of animals listed as sacrificial victims in the Yajur Veda or mentioned in the Atharva and the Brahmanas are challenging to identify. These include balaya, bhaumi, bhaumaka, charachara, chilvati, ghrinivant, golattika, kasha, kirsha, nilashirshni, srimara, shaka, tarda, and tayadara.

  Jasha, an aquatic animal or fish, has been equated with a makara. Jhasha, in the Manu story in the Shatapatha Brahmana, is a term for a great fish (maha-matsya). There is a reference to a horn on the fish, to which Manu’s boat was tied. A horned fish today is the tusked narwhal whale. Narhwals are medium-sized whales, weighing up to 1600 kg, with a 2–3-m-long tusk, who live in the Arctic region near Canada and Greenland. As seen earlier, Tilak had once put forward the theory of an Arctic homeland for the Rig Vedic people.

  BIRDS

  Most of the birds mentioned in the Rig are also referred to in the Later Vedic texts. These include the haridrava (yellow water wagtail), ropanaka (thrush or parrot); kikidivi (blue jay or partridge), peacock, and others.

  Further information is given on some of the birds. The shyena or eagle was one of the swiftest birds. From the heights where it flew, it could watch over people. Suparna was a term used for various birds. In one passage, it refers to a vulture. In the Atharva, the suparna is said to live in the hills. The uluka or owl was said to bring ill-fortune. In the ashvamedha, they were offered to the forest trees.

  A number of birds are mentioned in the Yajur texts, many in the list of ashvamedha victims (around sixty), though this must be purely hypothetical. These include balaka (white egret); darvaghata (woodpecker); darvida (woodpecker); datyauha (a marsh bird, probably the same as datyuha, a moor hen, in later texts); dhunksha or dhunkshna (same as dhvanksha, the jungle crow); goshadi, ‘sitting on a cow’, possibly an egret; kalavinka (sparrow); kanka, identified by Dave with the fishing eagle, still known by the same name in Nepal; kapinjala (francolin or grey partridge); krunch or krauncha, curlew or snipe, said to be able to separate milk from water, later an attribute of the hamsa; kukkuta (cock); kushitaka (according to the commentary, it is samudra-kaka, a sea crow, possibly a gull); kutaru (cock), according to Mahidhara, the same as kukkuta; laba (quail, Perdis chinensis); lopa, which Sayana says is a bird, perhaps the carrion crow, shmashana-shakuni; madgu (diver), an aquatic bird; paingaraja, identified with the large, racket-tailed drongo found in the outer Himalayas from Nepal to Assam, in Madhya Pradesh, and south India; paravata (turtle dove); pika (Indian cuckoo); pippaka, could also be a type of cuckoo, perhaps the hawk cuckoo or brainfever bird; plava is an aquatic bird; it is a generic term for
water birds in Ayurvedic texts; pushkarasada, ‘sitting on the lotus’, identified by Dave with the Indian whiskered tern, which nests on floating water plants and leaves of the lotus; saghan, is perhaps an eagle or vulture; sari, said to be purusha vach, ‘of human speech’, hence may be some kind of bird, possibly the later sarika or starling, though according to Dave, it is the hill myna; sharishaka may be a bird that Grill identifies with sharika, the hooded crow; sharga, according to Sayana is the ‘wild chataka’; shukra, parrot; vidigaya, is thought to be a type of cock, kukkuta-vishesha; in the Taittiriya Brahmana, the commentator considers it it is a white heron, shveta baka.

  Birds difficult to identify in the Yajur include alaja, hamsasachit, possibly a kind of duck; kakara, kalaka; kulika or pulika; kaulika; kuvaya or kvaya; parushna, shayandaka, sichapu, and vikakara.

  Among birds in the Atharva were also aliklava, some kind of carrion bird; dhvanksha, the jungle crow; krikavaku, domestic cock; patatrin, an unknown bird; raghat, a falcon or other swift-flying bird; and shakunta and vayas, which may have been generic names for birds.

  The Atharva also refers to shyenau-sampatinau or birds that hunt in pairs. In an interesting passage in this text, the god Indra is said to have helped a wounded pigeon (kapota) with food and water.

  Among large birds, bhasa (a bird of prey) and mahasuparna (a great eagle) are referred to in the Brahmanas. The later Charaka and Sushruta Samhitas divide birds into four categories: pratuda (peckers), vishkara (scratchers), plava (water birds), and prasaha (birds of prey).

  BIRDS AS FOOD

  Birds, even wild ones, seem to have been caught and eaten. There was a belief that when a bird was consumed, its qualities were imbibed by the person who ate it.

  The Paraskara Grihya Sutra has an interesting passage on the options for the first solid food for a boy of six months—bhardvaji or a female skylark if the father wanted the boy to have fluent speech; kapinjala or the grey partridge for abundant food; krikasha or the ringed plover for a long life; and ati or the black ibis for holy lustre.