तायु
यन्त्रोपारोपितकोशांशः
[सम्पाद्यताम्]वाचस्पत्यम्
[सम्पाद्यताम्]
![]() पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्। |
तायु¦ पु॰ ताय--उण्। चौरे स्तेने निघण्टुः
“अपत्येतायवो यथा नक्षत्रां” ऋ॰
१ ।
५० ।
२ ।
Apte
[सम्पाद्यताम्]
![]() पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्। |
तायुः [tāyuḥ], Ved. A thief.
Monier-Williams
[सम्पाद्यताम्]
![]() पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्। |
तायु m. = स्त्, a thief RV. i , iv-vii.
Vedic Index of Names and Subjects
[सम्पाद्यताम्]
![]() पृष्ठभागोऽयं यन्त्रेण केनचित् काले काले मार्जयित्वा यथास्रोतः परिवर्तयिष्यते। तेन मा भूदत्र शोधनसम्भ्रमः। सज्जनैः मूलमेव शोध्यताम्। |
Tāyu was another name for thief, perhaps of a less distinguished and more domestic character than the highwayman, for though he is referred to as a cattle-thief,[१] he is also alluded to as a stealer of clothes (vastra-mathi)[२] and as a debtor.[३] In one passage the Tāyus are said to disappear at the coming of dawn (which is elsewhere called yāvayad-dveṣas, ‘driving away hostile beings,’ and ṛta-pā, ‘guardian of order’), like the stars of heaven (nakṣatra).[४]
In the Śatarudriya litany of the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā[५] Rudra is called lord of assailers (ā-vyādhin), thieves (stena), robbers (taskara), pickpockets (stāyu), stealers (muṣṇant), and cutters (vi-kṛnta); and designations of sharpers (gṛtsa) and bands (gaṇa, vrāta), apparently of robbers, are mentioned.[६] It is therefore not surprising that the Rigveda[७] should contain many prayers for safety at home or on the way, or that the Atharvaveda should devote several hymns to night[८] chiefly for protection against the evil doings of thieves and robbers.
Pischel[९] suggests that in one passage of the Rigveda[१०] Vasiṣṭha is represented as a burglar, but the admits that, since Vasiṣṭha was attacking the house of his father Varuṇa, he was only seeking to obtain what he may have regarded as his own. But the interpretation of the hymn is not certain.[११]
Sāyaṇa's explanation of one passage of the Rigveda,[१२] as referring to professional cattle-trackers, like the Khojis of the Panjab, seems quite probable.[१३]
The punishment of thieves appears primarily to have been left to the action of the robbed. The practice of binding them in stocks[१४] seems clearly referred to. But later, at any rate-and in all probability earlier also, as in othe countries--a more severe penalty could be exacted, and death inflicted by the king.[१५] There is no hint in Vedic literature of the mode of conviction; a fire ordeal is not known to the Atharvaveda,[१६] and the ordeal known to the Chāndogya Upaniṣad[१७] is not said to be used in the case of theft. No doubt the stolen property was recovered by the person robbed if he could obtain it. Nothing is known as to what happened if the property had passed from the actual thief into the possession of another person.
Tāyu, ‘thief,’ is mentioned several times in the Rigveda.[१८] See Taskara.
- ↑ Rv. i. 65, 1;
vii. 86, 5. - ↑ Rv. iv. 38, 5.
- ↑ Rv. vi. 12, 5. No doubt this theft is the result of despair at being in debt, which might lead to loss of liberty (Ṛṇa).
- ↑ Rv. i. 50, 2. Cf. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 47.
- ↑ xvi. 20, 21. Cf. Taittirīya Saṃhitā, iv. 5, 4, 1;
Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā, xvii. 13;
Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, ii. 9, 4. - ↑ xvi. 25.
- ↑ i. 129, 9;
ii. 23, 16;
vi. 24, 10;
41, 5;
51, 15;
x. 63, 16. - ↑ Av. xix. 47-50.
- ↑ Vedische Studien, 2, 55, 56. Contrast 1, 106.
- ↑ Rv. vii. 55.
- ↑ Cf. Aufrecht, Indische Studien, 4, 337 et seq.;
Lanman, Sanskrit Reader, 370;
Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 308;
Bṛhaddevatā, vii. 11 et seq., with Macdonell's notes. - ↑ vi. 54, 1.
- ↑ Zimmer, op. cit., 182, 183, citing Elliot, Memoirs, 1, 276;
Jolly, Recht und Sitte, 123. - ↑ Cf. Rv. i. 24, 13, 15;
vii. 86, 5;
Av. vi. 63, 3 = 84, 4;
115, 2. 3;
121;
xix. 47, 9;
50, 1, all of which passages are cited by Zimmer, 181, 182, to prove this practice. But it must be noted that Rv. vii. 86, 5, alone is not at all conclusive evidence, though Av. xix. 47, 9;
50, 1 (drupade āhan), probably mean the same thing. Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 976, 983, renders the passages as referring to casting a thief into a snare, and Pischel, Vedische Studien, 1, 106, makes Rv. vii. 86, 5, refer to the cattle-thief (paśu-tṛp) taking away the rope from the calf he means to steal. For Rv. x. 4, 6, see above, n. 10. The German and Slavonic parallels cited by Zimmer, 182, n., support his view. See also for a similar punishment in case of debt, Ṛṇa. - ↑ Gautama Dharma Sūtra, xii. 4345;
Āpastamba Dharma Sūtra, i. 9, 25, 4. 5;
Jolly, op. cit., 124. - ↑ Av. ii. 12 was so interpreted by Schlagintweit, Die Gottesurtheile der Inder, 9 et seq. (1866);
Weber, Indische Studien, 13, 164 et seq.;
Ludwig, Translation of the Rigveda, 3, 445;
Zimmer, 183 et seq.;
but see Bloomfield, American Journal of Philology, 11, 330 et seq.;
Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 294-296;
Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 54;
Grill, Hundert Lieder,^2 47, 85;
Jolly, op cit., 146. - ↑ vi. 16;
Jolly, loc. cit. - ↑ i. 50, 2;
65, 1;
iv. 38, 5;
v. 15, 5;
52, 12;
vi. 12, 5;
vii. 86, 5 (paśu-tṛṭ, ‘cattle-thief,’ see Pischel, Vedische Studien, 1, 106).