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Vedic Urvárī; ‘lady of choice, wife’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

T. Burrow
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Extract

The rare Vedic word urvárī is in the dictionary of Böhtlingk and Roth (BR) given the meaning ‘Werg’, i.e. ‘tow, oakum’. This meaning is repeated in a number of subsequent dictionaries, e.g. in the first edition of Monier-Williams' Sanskrit dictionary (1872: ‘tow, fibres drawn out of the distaff’), in the Sanskrit- English dictionary of C. Cappeller (London, 1891), in V. S. Apte's Practical Sanskrit Dictionary (2nd edition, Bombay, 1912), and more recently in the Sanskrit-German dictionary of K. Mylius (Leipzig, 1975). It also appears in other works of reference, such as Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar (1171c) and Altindische Grammatik of Wackernagel-Debrunner (Vol. II, 2, p. 909). On the other hand in the Vachaspatya, A Comprehensive Sanskrit Dictionary by Taranatha Tarkavachaspati (Vol.1, Calcutta, 1873) the meaning given, with reference to AV 10, 4, 21, is completely different: ādhikyaprāptā strī.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 116 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 209 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1984

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References

1 Apte also gave ‘tow’ as another meaning of the word, although this meaning is excluded if the other meaning is accepted. In the Revised and Enlarged Edition of this dictionary, by Gode, P. G. and Karwe, C. G. (Poona 1957, 3 vols.) a third meaning was added which was merely MW's alternative rendering of T.s ādhikyaprāptā strī.Google Scholar

2 Uhlenbeck, C. C., Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der altindischen Sprache (Amsterdam, 1898/1899), p. 31.Google Scholar

3 E.g. Macdonell, A. A., Vedic Grammar, p. 132Google Scholar (‘filament’), Wackernagel-Debrunner, , Altindische Grammatik, II 2, p. 384 ‘(Pflanzen-) faser’.Google Scholar

4 The Hymns of the Atharva-veda. Translated by Griffith, Ralph T. (Benares 1895–1896), Vol. 2, p. 17.Google Scholar

5 Atharva-veda Saṃhitā. Translated by Whitney, W. D. and Lanman, C. R. (Cambridge, Mass., 1895, Harvard Oriental Series), Vol. 2, p. 578.Google Scholar

6 Hymns of the Atharva-veda. Translated by Bloomfield, M. (Oxford, 1897, Sacred Books of the East), p. 154.Google Scholar

7 Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, Herausgeg. Kuhn, von A., etc., Vol. 42, p. 166.Google Scholar

8 Caland, W., Das Śrautasiltra des Āpastamba. Aus dem Sanskrit übersetzt von Dr. W. C., 1–7, p. 144 (Leipzig, 1921).Google Scholar

9 The text of the Atharva-veda Paippalāda, Book II, was edited by Barret, LeRoy Carr in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 30 (1909–1910), pp. 187–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The text is now available in the edition, based on the much superior Oriya MSS., in Paippalāda Saṃhitā of the Atharva-veda, edited by Bhattacharya, Durgamohan, Sanskrit College, Calcutta, 1970.Google Scholar

10 The Kauśika Sūtra of the Atharva Veda. Edited by Bloomfield, Maurice (New Haven, 1889); pp. 261–262.Google Scholar

11 Published in Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1858.

12 This word occurs only here and in RV. 7.104.17. Sāyaṇa paraphrases ulūkī, and this meaning is confirmed by the context: prá y jīgāti khargálêva náktaṃ. A connection naturally suggests itself with the root kharj- ‘to sound harshly’, with the unpalatalised form of the root. On the other hand it should be noted that Bhattacharya's edition reads khalgalā. In view of the frequent alternation of r and l in Sanskrit this could be a genuine alternative form, with the possibility that the -l- is original.