तृत्सु

यन्त्रोपारोपितकोशांशः

वाचस्पत्यम्

पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्।

तृत्सु¦ त्रि॰ तृद--बा॰ सुक्। हिंसके।
“गव्या तृत्सुभ्यो अज-गन्युधा नॄन्” ऋ॰

७ ।

१८ ।

७ ।
“तृत्सुभ्यो हिंसकेभ्य”। भा॰

२ राजर्षिभेदे
“व्यानवस्य तृत्सवे गयम्” ऋ॰

७ ।

१८ ।

१३ । तृत्सुं राजर्षिभेदम्” भा॰।

Monier-Williams

पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्।

तृत्सु m. sg. and pl. N. of a race RV.

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects

पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्।

Tṛtsu occurs in the Rigveda, once in the singular and several times in the plural, as a proper name. The Tṛtsus were clearly helpers of Sudās in the great battle against the ten kings, Śimyu, the Turvaśa, the Druhyu, Kavaṣa, the Pūru, the Anu, Bheda, Śambara, the two Vaikarṇas, and perhaps the Yadu, who led with them as allies the Matsyas, Pakthas, Bhalānas, Alinas, Viṣāṇins, Śivas, Ajas, Śigrus, and perhaps Yakṣus. The defeat of the ten kings is celebrated in one hymn of the Rigveda, and is evidently alluded to in two others. The great battle took place on the Paruṣṇī, but there was also a fight on the Yamunā with Bheda, the Ajas, Śigrus, and Yakṣus. As the Yamunā and the Parusṇī represent opposite ends of the territory of the Tṛtsus (for we cannot with Hopkins safely identify the streams), it is difficult to see exactly how the ten kings could be confederated, but it should be noted that the references to the ten kings occur in the two later hymns, and not in the hymn describing the battle itself; besides, absolute numerical accuracy cannot be insisted upon.

It is difficult exactly to determine the character of the Tṛtsus; especially in their relation to the Bharatas, who under Viśvāmitra's guidance are represented as prospering and as advancing to the Vipāś and Śutudrī. Roth ingeniously brought this into connexion with the defeat of his enemies by Sudās, which is celebrated in the seventh book of the Rigveda--a book attributed to the Vasiṣṭha family--and thought that there was a reference in one verse to the defeat of the Bharatas by Sudās. But it seems certain that the verse is mistranslated, and that the Bharatas are really represented as victors with Sudās. Ludwig accordingly identifies the Tṛtsus and the Bharatas. Oldenberg, after accepting this view at first, later expressed the opinion that the Tṛtsus were the priests of the Bharata people, and therefore identical with the Vasiṣṭhas. This view is supported by the fact that in one passage the Tṛtsus are clearly described as wearing their hair in the peculiar manner affected by the Vasiṣṭhas, and would in that passage thus seem to represent the Vasiṣṭhas. But Geldner has suggested with great probability that Tṛtsu, who is once mentioned in the singular, means the Tṛtsu king--that is, Sudās. This explanation alone justifies the description of the Bharatas as Tṛtsūnāṃ viśaḥ, ‘subjects of the Tṛtsus,’ meaning the Tṛtsu Gotra or family, for the people could not be said to be subjects of a body of priests. The Vasiṣṭhas might be called Tṛtsus because of their close connexion with the royal house of that people. The reverse process is also quite possible, but is rendered improbable by the fact that the Pratṛdaḥ are referred to as receiving Vasiṣṭha. This name of the Tṛtsu dynasty is probably older than its connexion with Vasiṣṭha in the time of Sudās, a conclusion supported by the name of Pratardana, who is mentioned later as a descendant of Divodāsa, an ancestor of Sudās. The Tṛtsu dynasty could therefore hardly have been referred to as Vasiṣṭhas. For the further history of the dynasty and its relation with Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra, see Sudās.

If the Tṛtsus and their subjects, the Bharatas, were in the Rigvedic period at war with the tribes on either side of the territory between the Paruṣṇī and the Yamunā, it is clear that later on they coalesced with the Pūrus and probably others of those tribes to form the Kuru people. Already in the Rigveda the Tṛtsus are allied with the Sṛñjayas, and in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa one Purohita serves both Kurus and Sṛñjayas.

Hillebrandt considers that the Tṛtsus cannot be identified with the Bharatas, but that Sudās and the Bharatas represent an invading body, which, however, became allied with the Tṛtsus and the Vasiṣṭha priests. He also thinks that the Rigveda reveals a time when Divodāsa, the grandfather or ancestor of Sudās, was living in Arachosia, on the Sarasvatī, and warring against the Paṇis, whom he identifies with the Parnians. But this conjecture cannot be regarded as probable. In the Sarasvatī it is not necessary to see any other river than the later Sarasvatī, in the middle country, which flowed within the boundaries of the Tṛtsus: it is also significant that there are references to contests between Turvaśa Yadu and Atithigva or Divodāsa. Thus there is no reason to doubt that Divodāsa and the Bharatas were in the middle country, and not in Iran.