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पेसस् (pesas)

 
Vedic Reference
English
Pesas denotes in the Rigveda^1 and later^2 an embroidered
garment such as a female dancer would wear.^3 The fondness
of the Indians for such raiment is noted by Megasthenes^4 and
by Arrian, ^5 who refer to their ἐσθής κατάστικτος. So in one
passage^6 a garment (vastra) is called peśana, with which Roth^7
happily compares the Roman vestis coloribus intexta. The
making of such garments was a regular occupation of women,
as is indicated by the Peśas-kārī, the ‘female embroiderer, ’
figuring in the list of victims at the Puruṣamedha (‘human
sacrifice’) in the Yajurveda, ^8 though the, commentator on the
Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa interprets the word as ‘wife of a maker
of gold.’^9 Pischel, ^10 however, thinks that Peśas never means
anything but colour or form.
1) ii. 3, 6
iv. 36, 7
vii. 34, 11
42, 1.
2) Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xix. 82. 89
xx. 40
Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 19, etc.
3) Rv. i. 92, 4. 5.
4) See Štrabo, p. 509, where he refers
to a σιδών εὐανθής.
5) Indica, 5, 9.
6) Rv. x. 1, 6.
7) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.
8) Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, xxx. 9
Tait-
tirīya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 4, 5, 1.
9) Cf. perhaps suvarṇaṃ hiraṇyaṃ
peśalam in the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa,
iii. 3, 4, 5, where peśala probably refers
to cunningly-worked gold. But this
does not suit the compound peśas-kārī,
which must denote a ‘maker of peśas, ’
and peśas has not the sense of wrought
gold in any passage. Cf. also Bṛhad-
āraṇyaka Upaniṣad, iv. 4, 5
Zimmer,
Altindisches Leben, 261.
10) Vedische Studien, 2, 113-125.