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परुष्णी (paruSNI)

 
Monier Williams Cologne
English
परुष्णी
f.
N.
 of one of the rivers of the Panjāb now called Rāvī,
RV.
Macdonell
English
परुष्णी páruṣ-ṇ-ī,
f.
 (of paruṣa) cloud 🞄(motely)
N. of a river in the Panjāb (knotty, 🞄winding), now Ravi.
Vedic Reference
English
Paruṣṇī is the name of a river which is mentioned in the
Nadī-stuti (‘Praise of Rivers’), ^1 and in the song of Sudās’
victory over the ten kings, ^2 which seems to have been made
decisive by the rise of the river drowning the fugitives.^3 In
these passages and one of the eighth book of the Rigveda, ^4
where it is called a ‘great stream’ (mahenadi), the name is
certainly that of the river later called Ravi (Irāvatī), as recog-
nized by Yāska.^5 Pischel^6 sees a reference to it in two other
passages of the Rigveda, ^7 where ‘wool’ (ūṛṇā) is connected
with the word paruṣṇī, and the allusion to the river is accepted
by Max Müller^8 and Oldenberg, ^9 though they are not fully
agreed as to the exact sense of the passages in question.
Pischel suggests that the name is derived from the ‘flocks’
(parus) of wool, not from the bends of the river, as understood
by the Nirukta, ^5 or from its reeds, as Roth^10 suggests.
The mention of the Paruṣṇī and the Yamunā in the hymn
celebrating the victory of Sudās has given rise to the conjectures
of Hopkins, ^11 that the Yamunā in that hymn is merely another
name for the Paruṣṇī, and of Geldner, ^12 that the Paruṣṇī there
is merely a tributary of the Yamunā (Jumna). But neither
interpretation is either essential or even probable. The hymn
is a condensed one, and may well be taken as celebrating two
great victories of Sudās. There is a doubtful reference to the
Paruṣṇī in the Atharvaveda.^13
1) x. 75, 5.
2) vii. 18, 8. 9.
3) It is impossible to decide precisely
what part the river played in the battle.
It is usually held that the enemies of
Sudās tried to divert the stream, but
failed, and were drowned in its current.
So Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 11
Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, 154
Geldner, Rigveda, Kommentar, 103, holds
that Sudās was caught between two
opposing armies, and had to escape
over the Paruṣṇī, that his enemies
tried to divert it to render him more
accessible to their attack, but failed,
and were overwhelmed in the river.
Hopkins, India, Old and New, 52 et seq.,
may be right in rejecting in toto the
theory of the attempted diversion of
the waters, though in the Journal of the
American Oriental Society, 15, 261 et seq.,
he accepted the traditional view.
4) viii. 74, 15.
5) Nirukta, ix. 26.
6) Vedische Studien, 2, 208-210.
7) iv. 22, 2
v. 52, 9.
8) Sacred Books of the East, 32, 315,
323.
9) Ṛgveda-Noten, 1, 348.
5) Nirukta, ix. 26.
10) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. 4a.
11) Op. cit., 52.
12) Ṛgveda, Glossar, 106.
13) vi. 12, 3. Cf. Bloomfield, Hymns
of the Atharvaveda, 462
Whitney,
Translation of the Atharvaveda, 289.
Burnouf
French
परुष्णी परुष्णी
f.
 rivière du Saptasindhu, Vd.