शर्यणावन्त्

यन्त्रोपारोपितकोशांशः

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects

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

Śaryaṇāvant occurs in several passages of the Rigveda, in all of which Sāyaṇa sees a local name. According to his account, Śaryaṇāḥ (masc. plur.) is a district in Kurukṣetra, Śaryaṇāvant being a lake not far from it in the back part (jaghanārdhe) of Kurukṣetra. The unusual consistency of his statements on this point is in favour of the word being a place name; it is also to be noted that Kurukṣetra contained the lake Anyataḥplakṣā. Roth, however, thought that in two passages the word denoted merely a ‘lake,’ literally ‘(water) covered with a thicket of reeds’ (śaryaṇa), and in the others a Soma vessel. Zimmer inclines to this rendering. On the other hand, Pischel accepts Sāyaṇa's view. Hillebrandt also sees in the word a place name, but he is inclined to locate it among the ‘five tribes,’ which is not quite inconsistent with its being in Kurukṣetra, for the connexion of the Pūrus with the later Kurus is known; or perhaps, he suggests, Śaryaṇāvant is an old name for the Wular sea of Kaśmīr, which was only a reminiscence in Vedic times. This is not probable; still less so is Ludwig's hypothesis that the Śaryaṇāvant is the later eastern Sarasvatī. Bergaigne regards the name as that of a celestial preparer of Soma.