ग्रावन्

Sanskrit

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂wō (“heavy stone”). Cognate with English quern, Old Irish brao.

It has been suggested that the word used in the Rigveda is unrelated to the sense "stone" and rather refers to a human person, meaning "praiser, singer", possibly deriving from the root गॄ (gṝ).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

ग्रावन् • (grā́van) stem, m

  1. (Rigvedic) (traditional translation) a stone for pressing out the Soma juice
    • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 10.108.11:
      dūrám ita paṇayo várīya úd gā́vo yantu minatī́r ṛténa
      bṛ́haspátir yā́ ávindan nígūḷhāḥ sómo grā́vāṇa ṛ́ṣayaś ca víprāḥ
      Hence, far away, ye Paṇis! Let the cattle lowing come forth as holy Law commandeth,
      Kine which Brhaspati, and Soma, Ṛsis, sages, and pressing-stones have found when hidden.
  2. a stone or rock
  3. a mountain
  4. a cloud

Declension

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

Descendants
  • Odia: ଗ୍ରାବ (grabô)
  • Tamil: கிராவணம் (kirāvaṇam), சிராவணம் (cirāvaṇam)
  • Telugu: గ్రావము (grāvamu)

References
  1. Karen Thomson (2001). "The Meaning and Language of the Rigveda: Rigvedic grā́van as a test case", The Journal of Indo-European Studies, 29 (3 & 4). Online at https://www.rigveda.co.uk/gravan.pdf
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.