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आसङ्गप्लायोगि (AsaGgaplAyogi)

 
पुराणम्
English
आसंगप्लायोगि / ĀSAṀGAPLĀYOGI. A King, who was generous by nature. In the ṛgveda, there is a reference to this King who once lost his masculinity and was transformed into a woman but was restored to manhood by a muni named Medhyātithi.
Vedic Reference
English
Āsaṅga Plāyogi is a king who appears in a Dānastuti
(‘Praise of Gifts’) in the Rigveda^1 as a generous patron.
Owing, however, to the addition of a curious phallic verse to
the hymn, and its early misunderstanding, ^2 a legend was
invented that he lost his manhood and became a woman, but
by the intercession of Medhyātithi was transformed into a man,
much to the delight of his wife, Śaśvatī, whose existence is
based on a misunderstanding of the phrase ‘every woman’
(śaśvatī nārī) in the added verse.^3 Another misunderstanding
of the Dānastuti^4 gives him a son Svanad-ratha, really a mere
epithet, and makes him a descendant of Yadu.
1) viii. 1, 32. 33.
2) viii. 1, 34. See Hopkins, Religions
of India, 150, n. 1
Bṛhaddevatā, ii. 83
vi. 41, with Macdonell's notes. Dyā-
dviveda gives the tale at length in Vedic
words taken from the Nighaṇṭu, a
curious jeu d'esprit. See the extract
from the Nītimañjarī given by Sieg,
Die Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda, 40, 41.
3) viii. 1, 34.
4) viii. 1, 31. 32. Cf. Ludwig, Trans-
lation of the Rigveda, 3, 159
Hopkins,
Journal of the American Oriental Society,
17, 89
Griffith, Hymns of the Rigveda,
2, 106, 107
Oldenberg. Ṛgveda-Noten,
1, 354.