पौल्कस

यन्त्रोपारोपितकोशांशः

Monier-Williams

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

पौल्कस m. (= पुल्कस)the son of a निषादor of a शूद्रfather and of a क्षत्रियाmother VS. S3Br. etc.

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects

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

Paulkasa is the name of one of the victims at the Puruṣamedha (‘human sacrifice’) in the Yajurveda. The name also occurs in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad as that of a despised race of men, together with the Cāṇḍāla. The Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā has the variant Puklaka or Pulkaka, clearly the same as Pulkasa, of which Paulkasa is a derivative form, showing that a caste is meant (cf. Kaulāla, Pauñjiṣṭha). In the accepted theory the Pulkasa is the son of a Niṣāda or Śūdra by a Kṣatriya woman, but this is merely speculative; the Paulkasa may either have been a functional caste, or, as Fick believes, an aboriginal clan living by catching wild beasts, and only occasionally reduced to menial tasks.