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दुर्गह (durgaha)

 
Capeller Eng
English
दुर्ग॑ह
n.
dangerous place or way, danger.
Monier Williams Cologne
English
दुर्—ग॑ह
n.
(गाह्) an impassable or impervious place, difficulty, danger,
RV.
Macdonell
English
दुर्गह dur-gaha,
m.
N..
Vedic Reference
English
Dur-gaha is mentioned in a hymn of the Rigveda, ^1 where
his grandsons are lauded for their generosity, though Sāyaṇa
renders the word adjectivally.^2 In another passage of the
Rigveda, ^3 however, Sāyaṇa sees in the epithet Daurgaha a
description of Purukutsa as Durgaha's son, who was either
captured by the enemy or slain, and whose wife, Purukutsānī,
then obtained a son, Trasadasyu, to restore the line
he also
quotes a story, not found in the Bṛhaddevatā, ^4 to support this
interpretation. On the other hand, the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa^5
seems to take Daurgaha as meaning a horse. Sieg^6 thinks
that the same sense should be adopted in the Rigveda passage,
which he interprets as referring to the sacrifice of a horse,
Daurgaha, by King Purukutsa to gain a son
he also sees in
Dadhikrāvan, with Pischel^7 and Ludwig, ^8 a real horse, the
charger of Trasadasyu. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa's inter-
pretation of Daurgaha is, however, doubtful, and cannot be
regarded as receiving support from the case of Dadhikrāvan,
who was probably a divinity, and not a real horse at all.^9
1) viii. 65, 12.
2) ‘Plunged in distress’ (duḥkhaṃ
gāhamāna).
3) iv. 42, 8.
4) As Roth. St. Petersburg Dictionary,
s.v., says it is.
5) xiii. 5, 4, 5. According to the
Naighaṇṭuka (i. 14), Daurgaha is a
synonym of ‘horse.’
6) Die Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda, 96-102.
7) Vedische Studien, 1, 124.
8) Translation of the Rigveda, 4, 79.
Cf. Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, 71.
9) Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, pp. 148,
149.
Cf. Ludwig, op. cit., 3, 163, 174
Oldenberg, Ṛgveda-Noten, 1, 301, 302.
Capeller
German
दुर्ग॑ह
n.
böser Ort o. Weg, Schwierigkeit,
Gefahr.
Grassman
German
durgáha, n., m., ursprünglich Adj.: „schwer zu durchdringen, undurchdringlich“ [gáha von gah = gāh], daher 1〉 n., schwer zu durchdringender Ort
2〉 n., Gefahr, Widerwärtigkeit, in bildlichem Sinne als ein solcher Ort aufgefasst, und zwar unter Festhaltung des Bildes
3〉 n., dass., aber ohne festgehaltenes Bild
4〉 m., Eigenname eines Mannes.
-asya 4〉 {674, 12}.
-āṇi 2〉 {463, 7}. 3〉 {822, 12}.
[p. n.] 1〉 {314, 2}. 2〉 {358, 9}
{663, 30}
{1008, 1}. 3〉 {924, 12}.