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पृषध्र (pRSadhra)

 
Monier Williams Cologne
English
पृष—ध्र
m.
N.
 of a man,
RV.
 viii, 52, 4 (supposed author of
RV.
 viii, 56)
of a son of one of the Manus,
MBh.
of a warrior on the side of the Pāṇḍavas, ib. (w.r. -ध्रु
cf.
 पृश्नि-धर).
Mahabharata
English
Pṛshadhra, one or more ancient kings. § 139 (Manu Vaivasvata): I, 75, 3141 (ninth son of Manu Vaivasvata). --§ 787 (Āśramavāsap.): XV, 20, 548 (Vajradharopamaḥ, ascended to heaven). Cf. the prec.
पुराणम्
English
पृषध्र १ / PṚṢADHRA I. The ninth son of vaivasvata manu. He is described as one of the sacred and virtuous persons to be remembered during early mornings. He did penance at kurukṣetra and attained Svarga. (Śloka 11, Chapter 20, aśvamedha Parva).
Even from boyhood pṛṣadhra started practice of penance. He got disgusted with life even from his boyhood. A story is told how it happened so. Once when pṛṣadhra was studying under his guru, a tiger entered the shed of the cows at night. Hearing the pitiable wails of the cow he went to the shed with his sword and gave a strong and fatal cut to the tiger with it. Unfortunately the stroke fell on the cow instead of the tiger and not knowing the truth in the darkness pṛṣadhra went and slept peacefully. In the morning when he went to the shed he found the cow lying dead with his sword-cut. He then knew the mistake he had made at night and was so distressed with the accident that he at once left for kurukṣetra and started doing penance there.
पृषध्र २ / PṚṢADHRA II. A son of King drupada. He was killed in the great battle by aśvatthāmā. (Śloka 18, Chapter 156, droṇa parva).
पृषध्र ३ / PṚṢADHRA III. A brahmin boy. One night while he was living in the āśrama of his guru he saw a lion going out from the premises of the āśrama with an āśrama cow in its mouth. The brahmin boy rushed at it and struck the lion with a sword. But due to want of proper light the sword-cut fell on the cow and the cow fell down dead. The next day the guru finding the cow lying dead mistook it for a deliberate killing by his disciple and cursed pṛṣadhra to death. to be born as a śūdra. When pṛṣadhra was thus roaming about in the forests in his cursed form he fell into a big forest fire and was burnt to death. (Chapter 2, sṛṣṭi Khaṇḍa, padma purāṇa
Chapter 1, aṁśa 4, viṣṇu purāṇa).
Vedic Reference
English
Pṛṣadhra occurs in a Vālakhilya hymn of the Rigveda^1 as
the name of a man. He is also mentioned in the Śāṅkhāyana
Śrauta Sūtra^2 as a patron of Praskaṇva, and called Pṛṣadhra
Medhya Mātariśvan (or Mātariśva)
but for once there is a
discrepancy between the statement of the Sūtra and the text
of the Rigveda, for the hymns^3 there attributed to Praskaṇva
as in praise of Pṛṣadhra have nothing in them connected with
Pṛṣadhra, while the Anukramaṇī (Index) ascribes to Pṛṣadhra
himself the authorship of one of them.^4 On the other hand,
Medhya and Mātariśvan appear as separate persons in the
Rigveda^1 along with Pṛṣadhra.
1) viii. 52, 2.
2) xvi. 11, 25-27.
3) viii. 55. 56.
4) viii. 56.
Cf. Weber, Episches im vedischen Ritual,
39.
1) viii. 52, 2.
Grassman
German
pṛṣadhra, m., Eigenname eines Mannes (aus pṛ́ṣat und dhra von dhṛ).
-e {1021, 2} (viersilbig, also wol pṛ́ṣadhare zu sprechen.).