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उपलप्रक्षिणी (upalaprakSiNI)

 
Vedic Reference
English
Upala-prakṣiṇī occurs once in the Rigveda, ^1 where it desig-
nates the occupation of a woman, as opposed to that of her
son, who is a poet (kāru), and to that of his father, who is a
physician (bhiṣaj). Yāska^2 renders the word by ‘maker of
groats’ (saktu-kārikā), and Roth, ^3 Grassmann, ^4 Zimmer, ^5 as well
as others, connect it with the operation of grinding corn.
Pischel, ^6 however, who points out that corn was not ground
between two stones, but beaten on a stone with a pestle (dṛṣad),
considers that Upala-prakṣiṇī denotes a woman that assisted at
the crushing of Soma (cf. Upara). Von Schroeder, ^7 who more
correctly points out that there is no objection to regarding
upala as the mortar in which the corn was placed and then
beaten with the pestle, renders the word literally as ‘one who
fills the (lower) stone (with corn).’
1) ix. 112, 3.
2) Nirukta, vi. 5.
3) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.
4) Ibid., s.v., ‘fitting the upper (to the
lower) millstone.’
5) Altindisches Leben, 269. Cf. Hille-
brandt, Vedaschrestomathie, s.v., who,
taking pṛc in the sense of ‘fill, ’ explains
the compound as ‘filling the upper mill-
stone, ’ an interpretation which as it
stands is unintelligible.
6) Vedische Studien, 1, 308-310.
7) Mysterium und Mimus, 412 et seq.
Von Schroeder does not accept the
view that the mother of the singer is
alluded to
but it seems impossible to
draw any other conclusion from the
language of the passage, and his own
explanation of the word as refer-
ring to a corn-mother is very im-
probable
cf. Keith, Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, 1909, 204.
Capeller
German
उपलप्रक्षि॑णी f Müllerin.