| YouTube Channel

अन्नायु (annAyu)

 
Monier Williams Cologne
English
अन्नायु
m.
 (coined for the etymology of वायु), ‘living by food, desirous of food’,
AitUp.
Goldstucker
English
अन्नायु m. (-युः) I. Tatpur. Seizing food (see अन्न 2. 2.)
or
II. Bahuvr. Living through food (see अन्न 2. 2.)
an epithet
of the vital air अपान q. v., in the Aitareya Upanishad,
because it alone was capable to seize the primitive food,
created from the waters by the Supreme Soul, after speech,
the vital air प्राण q. v., eye, ear, skin (i. e. touch), manas and
the generative organ were unable to take possession of, and
thus of preserving, life through it. In the passage alluded
to there is a quibble on the word आयु, according to its
having the sense of ‘obtaining’ from the corresponding
meaning of the rad. ई, वी, or the sense of आयुस् ‘life’
as the word occurs in the nomin. अन्नायुः, it may, as a
Bahuvr., represent also the form अन्नायुस्. The radical ई
having the same meaning as वी and probably being identical
with it in origin, the words वयत् and वायु ‘air or taking’,
in the same passage, complete the double sense of the pun:
‘तद् (i. e. अन्नं) अपानेनाजिघृक्षत्तदा वयत् । स एषोऽन्नस्य
ग्रहो (comm. = अन्नग्राहकः) यद्वायुरन्नायुर्वा एष यद्वायुः
comm.: यो वायुरन्नायुरन्नबन्धनोऽन्नजीवनो वै प्रसिद्धं स एष
यो वायुः. E. अन्न and आयु.