Remarks on the temporal values of the Rig Vedic terms in -pitva-.

• Author: Vance, William A.
• Position: Critical Essay

This contribution examines the Rig Vedic terms in -pitva- (abhipitva-, apapitva-, apitva-, prapitva-, and sapitva-) by considering both their distribution among the poetic families and the juxtapositions in which the terms are employed by the bards of each book. The investigation allows an elucidation of the temporal values often denoted by the terms.

1.1. FROM THE BEGINNING OF VEDIC STUDIES, knotty problems of interpretation have been posed by the group of terms ending in -pitva- (adhipitva-, apapitva-, apitva-, prapitva- and sapitva-). As early as the native commentators, attempts to solve the complexities of this word group have yielded inconsistent etymological and interpretative results. For example, Yaska (Nirukta 3.15) explains abhipitva- as abhiprapti 'arrival', and he is followed by Sayana at 1.189.7, 4.16.1, 7.18.9, 8.4.21, 8.27.20, 10.40.2. (1) Yet Sayana's treatment of the term reflects his uncertainty about its meaning. At 1.186.1 he offers the gloss abhipitve 'bhigantavye yajne, but later in the same hymn (1.186.7) Sayana has abhipitve 'bhipataniye 'smadyajne. In the same passage, Mahidhara gives abhipatane agamanakale, thus interpreting the word as 'the time of arrival'. The related term prapitva- creates similar perplexities for the native tradition. Yaska (Naighantavas 3.29, Nirukta 3.20) interprets both prapitve and abhike (4.16.12) as as annasya, thus reading them as denotations of proximity. However, at 6.31.3 Sayana glosses prapitve with prapatane yuddhe, rendering it 'strife'. At the occurrence of prapitva- in 5.31.7 Sayana offers both prapitvam samgramam (thus 'battle') and samipam (thus 'proximity'). (2)

1.2. The early Western interpreters had no better success at unraveling the difficulties of the word group. For abhipitva- the Petersburg lexicon and Bohtlingk's lexicon agree in assigning the meanings: 1) Einkehr, 2) des Tages Einkehr, Abend. Yet for prapitva-, the Petersburg Lexicon gives: 1) das Entgegengehen, 2) das Herbeikommen, Anbrechen des Tages, Fruhe; while Bohtlingk's lexicon asserts that prapitva- should be understood as: 1) Weggang, 2) Flucht, Ruckzug (sic), 3) ein zuruckgezogener Ort, 4) Ruckgang des Tages, Abend. Clearly, these two lexicons could not be further apart in their interpretation of prapitva-.

1.3. An exhaustive study of the Vedic words in -pitva by Bloomfield (1896 [orig. 1892]; cf. Renou, EVP IV: 35, 108; XII: 109) concluded that the terms (prapitva-, adhipitva-, sapitva-, etc.) contain the stem pitu- 'food, drink, nourishment' and that prapitva- meant 'the morning Soma pressing' (pratah-savana) and abhipitva- 'the evening pressing' (trtiya-savana). Bloomfield's conclusions competed with those of Pischel and Geldner (1892: 2.155-79), who suggested that the term abhipitva- underwent a semantic expansion from 'Erholung', 'Rast', to 'die Zeit des Rasten', 'Feierabend', 'Abend' (p. 155). They assign to prapitva- the meanings 'Vorlauf', 'das aufs Ziel Zugehen', 'die vorgertickte Tageszeit' (p. 178). While such contributions have helped...