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शकधूम (zakadhUma)

 
Capeller Eng
English
शकधू॑म
m.
 the smoke of dung.
Spoken Sanskrit
English
शकधूम zakadhUma
m.
 priest who augurs by means of cow-dung
शकधूम zakadhUma
m.
 smoke of burnt or burning cow-dung
शकधूम zakadhUma
m.
 priest who augurs by means of cow-dung
Monier Williams Cologne
English
शक—धू॑म
m.
 the smoke of burnt or burning cow-dung,
AV.
(prob.)
N.
 of a Nakṣatra, ib.
a priest who augurs by means of cow-dung,
Kauś.
Schmidt Nachtrage zum Sanskrit Worterbuch
German
शकधूम Kauś. 8, 17
50, 5 ein Priester, der aus dem Dunste des Mistes wahrsagt.
Vedic Reference
English
Śaka-dhūma is found in one hymn of the Atharvaveda, ^1
where it is celebrated as the king of the asterisms. The word
seems to mean the ‘smoke of (burning) cow-dung, ’ or else the
‘smoke (rising) from (fresh) cow-dung’: it may well be, as
Weber^2 thinks, that this was deemed to be significant of the
weather. Bloomfield, ^3 however, considers that the word is to
be rendered as ‘weather prophet, ’ that is, one who foretells the
weather by means of the smoke of a fire. Whitney^4 objects to
this view with reason. It is not at all improbable that, as
Roth^5 believed, an asterism of some sort is meant, probably
the ‘milky way.’
1) vi. 128, 1, 3. 4, and in the Nakṣatra
Kalpa.
2) Omina and Portenta, 363
Indische
Studien, 5, 257
10, 65
Naxatra, 2,
272, n.
293.
3) American Journal of Philology, 7, 484
et seq.
Journal of the American Oriental
Society, 13, cxxxiii
Hymns of the Athar-
vaveda, 532, 533.
4) Translation of the Atharvaveda.
377, 378.
5) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.
Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 353
Caland, Altindisches Zauberritnal, 175, n. 3.