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Art. VI.—Nejamesha, Naigamesha, Nemeso
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
One of the sculptures discussed by Dr. Bühler in his highly interesting paper on Specimens of Jaina Sculptures from Mathura (Epigraphia Indica, vol. ii. part xiv. pp. 311 seqq.) bears the perfectly legible inscription bhagavā Nemeso, “divine Nemesa.” Dr. Bühler (l.c. p. 314) refers these words to the goat-headed figure just above them, identifying this Nemesa with Hariṇegamesī or Naigameshin, a divine being mentioned in Jaina legends as presiding over the procreation of children. In support of this explanation Dr. Bühler refers (p. 316) to “the occurrence of the Sanskrit words Naigamesha and Nejamesha, which in the Gṛhyasūtras and the medical Saṃhitās are the names of a deity with a ram's head, particularly dangerous to children.” “There can be no doubt,” Dr. Bühler adds, “that the Naigamesha or Nejamesha of the Brahmans, who seizes children and sorely afflicts them with disease, and the son-granting and embryo-exchanging Naigamesha - Naigameshin of the Jainas are in reality identical.”
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References
page 149 note 1 I am inclined to think that Naigameya in the Mahābhārata is merely a false reading for Naigamesha, for it is hardly possible to establish an etymological connection between the two forms, and yet it is impossible to separate the two beings. See Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. Naigameya, and Bühler, l.c. p. 316.
page 150 note 1 Khila 30, 1 in Max Müller's Rigveda (second edition), vol. iv. p. 540; Aufrecht, vol. ii. p. 687.
page 150 note 2 This line occurs, Av. v. 25, 2; vi 17, 1, with the various reading mahībhūtānām for mahyùttānā. The Mantrapāṭha i. 12, 4 reads in the same verse mahī tíshṭhantī.
page 150 note 3 Mantrapāṭha i. 12, 4 has the important variant eváṃ tváṃ gárbham ā dhatsva.
page 150 note 4 Mantrapāṭha i. 12, 6 has the vocative víshṇo, which is also supported by Av. v. 25, 10–13.
page 150 note 5 This is the reading of Av. v. 25, 10. The Khila MSS. have púmāṃsam putrān, and dáçāsyām putrān. The Bombay edition of the Rigveda by Rāja-Rāmaçāstri and Çiva-Rāmaçāstri, has also púmāṃsam putrān. Mantrap. l.c. has púmāṃsaṃ gárbham.
page 150 note 6 It is not necessary to correct asyāṃ nāryāṃ to asyānāryā, the reading of Av. v. 25, 10. (See Stenzler's note to his translation of Āçv. Gṃhy. i. 14, 3.) We can explain it as meaning literally ‘into this woman, namely into her womb.’
page 151 note 1 See also Stenzler's German translation of the Āçvalāyana-Gṃhyasūtra, p. 39 (note to i. 14, 9).
page 152 note 1 I hope to publish an edition of this text in the ‘Anecdota Oxoniensia’ Series shortly, nearly the whole of the text being in type.
page 152 note 2 I am indebted to Professor Knauer, of Kiew, who is preparing an edition of the Mānava Gṃhyasūtra, for kindly communicating to me the passage given above from this important text.
page 152 note 3 See Prof. Jolly's article, ‘Das Dharmasûtra des Vishṇu und das Kûṭhakagṛihyasûtra’ (Sitzungsber. der philos.-philol. Classe der bayerischen Akademie der Wiss. vom 7. Juni, 1879), p. 80.
page 153 note 1 See Pāraskara Gṛhy. i. 16, 23 seq.; Apastambīya Gṛhy. 18, 1, with Mantrapāṭha, ii. 16, 1–11; Hiraṇyakeçin Gṛhy. ii. 3, 7.
page 154 note 1 Hariṇegamesi, too, has the power of transforming himself.—Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii. p. 228.
page 154 note 2 See Bühler, l.c. p. 316, and Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. Naigameya. Naigameya is called chāgavaktro bahuprajaḥ, ‘goat-faced and rich in offspring,’ MBhār. iii. 225, 28.
page 154 note 3 See Wilson, Vishṇu-Purāṇa (London, 1840), p. 120, where Pṛsṭhaja seems to be mistaken for a proper name.
page 155 note 1 Another point of contact has been mentioned by Dr. Bühler. The Jaina Naigameshin is Indra's general, just as Skanda, of whom—according to one version—Naigameya is only another form, is the field-marshal of the gods. In one passage, MBhār. jii. 231, 7, Naigameya is given as one of the 51 names of the War-god.