Page:Vedic Index of Names and Subjects (1912), Volume 1.djvu/21

 '''VEDIC INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. '''

Amśu. 1. Name of a protégé of the Aśvins in the Rigveda.^1 2. Dhanamjayya, pupil of Amavasya Śandilyayana, according to the Vamśa Brahmana.^2

1 viii.5,26. Cf. Ludwig, Translation of the Rigveda, 3,160 ; Hopkins, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 17,89 ; Sieg, Die Sagenstoffe des Rgveda, 129, suggests that he may be identical with Khela.

2 Indische Studien, 4,373.

Amhasas-pati. This is the name of the intercalary month in the Vajasaneyi Samhita (vii.30; xxii.31). See Masa.

Akra. In several passages of the Rigveda^1 this word means, according to Geldner,^2 'horse.' Roth^3 suggests that 'riding horse' is the precise sense. Cf. Aśva.

1 i.143,7; 189.7 ; iii.1,12 ; iv.6,3 ; x.77,2.

2 Vedische Studien, 1,168, 169.

3 Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 48, 118. Cf. Max Mueller, Sacred Books of the East, 32, 414.

1. Aksa, ' axle,' is a part of a chariot often referred to in the Rigveda^1 and later. It was apparently^2 fastened to the body of the chariot (Kośa) by straps (aksa-nah, lit. ' tied to the axle,' though this word is also^3 rendered 'horse'). The heating of the axle and the danger of its breaking were known.^4 The part of the axle round which the nave of the wheel revolved was called Ani, ' pin.'

1 i.30,14 ; 166,9 ; iii.53,17 ; vi.24,3 ; x.89,4, etc.

2 Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 246.

3 Rv. x.53,7. Cf. Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.

4 Rv. i.164,13. VOL. I. I