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पुरुमीळ्ह (purumILha)

 
Monier Williams Cologne
English
पुरु—मीळ्ह॑
m.
 (RV. )
N.
 of a man (with the patr. Āṅgirasa or Sauhotra
the supposed author of
RV.
 iv, 43
44)
of a son of Su-hotra,
MBh.
of a grandson of Su-hotra and son of Hastin (Bṛhat),
Hariv.
Pur.
of a man with the patr. Vaidadaśvi,
TāṇḍBr.
Vedic Reference
English
Puru-mīḷha is mentioned twice in the Rigveda^1 as an ancient
sage, in which capacity he appears in the Atharvaveda^2 also.
Perhaps the same^3 Purumīḷha is intended in an obscure hymn
in the Rigveda, ^4 where, according to the legends reported in
the Bṛhaddevatā^5 and by Ṣaḍguruśiṣya in his commentary on
the Sarvānukramaṇī, ^6 and by Sāyaṇa in his commentary on the
Rigveda, ^4 he as well as Taranta was a son of Vidadaśva, and
a patron of the singer Śyāvāśva. The correctness of the legend
has been shown to be most improbable by Oldenberg, ^7 who
points out^8 that the legend misinterprets the Rigveda by
making Purumīḷha a Vaidadaśvi, for he is there only compared
in generosity to one.
In another legend found in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, ^9 and
based on a hymn of the Rigveda, ^10 Purumīḷha and Taranta
appear as persons who received gifts from Dhvasra and Puru-
ṣanti, and as sons of Vidadaśva. The legend, which also
occurs in the Śāṭyāyanaka, ^11 is apparently best explained by
Sieg, ^12 who says that as the two were kings they could not
under the rules of caste accept gifts, unless for the nonce they
became singers. The legend has no claim at all, as Oldenberg^13
shows, to validity.
1) i. 151, 2
183. 5.
2) iv. 29, 4
xviii. 3, 15.
3) See, however, Weber, Episches im
vedischen Ritual, 27, n. 3
Sieg, Die
Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda, 62, n. 3
4) v. 61, 9.
5) v. 49 et seq., with Macdonell's notes.
6) Edition Macdonell, pp. 118 et seq.
4) v. 61, 9.
7) Ṛgveda-Noten, 1, 353, 354. Cf. Max
Müller, Sacred Books of the East, 32,
359.
8) Op. cit., 354, n. 1.
9) xiii. 7, 12.
10) ix. 58, 3.
11) Cited by Sāyaṇa on Rv., loc. cit.
12) Op, cit., 63.
13) Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgen-
ländischen Gesellschaft, 42, 232, n. 1. He
points out, Ṛgveda-Noten, 1, 354, that
the legend is not accepted by the
Anukramaṇī (Index), since its list of
authors gives Avatsāra as the Ṛṣi, not
the two Taranta and Purumīḷha.