414 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1909. 
gender of a4, a female ant. It appears that the word has 
another female gender,namely, at | Jam inclined to think that 
originally a@t was the only form of the female gender of the word. 
But when the Risis came in contact with the Babylonians and 
the necessity arose of having a name for them, they took an old 
word, and giving it a little twist coined a new one, which from 
one point of veiw was merely a new form of its female gender 
and from another point of view the name of Babylon, ‘‘ Babli’”’ 
Sanskritized. This gave them an opportunity to play on the 
two meanings of the word at and also mysteriously mention 
a historical “ee which for obvious reasons they would not refer 
plainly. There can be no doubt that the fact would not have 
been essntioned even mysteriously had not the great attach- 
ment of Risi Vamadev for god Indra induced him to refer to it 
for the glorification of that great god and to describe his exploits 
exactly as they happened. Indra slew Ahi who had most 
cruelly put to death such an aa a person as King Yama. 
Indra also made Yama a great go 
The punning on the word a@ is this. Taking Vamris in 
the sense of ants, the 7ik says that when grown arrogant even so 
great a king as Yama was killed by the female Upadika ants. 
In another sense it means that he was killed by the Babyloni- 
ans under Ahi. e Iranian Risis cee “shold scorn by 
calling Ahi, Dahaka—little bit of a 
t is to be noticed that the Seiitbsicn given above shows 
also why the final 7 in ‘‘ Babli’’ has been changed into 7 
2°. sy. The word occurs in 11 places in the Rigveda. 
namely, as 
=m inv. 44. 7. m. nom. sing.—unmarried. 
ga in vii. 96. 4. m. nom. pl.—unmarried. 
wyq in vii. 2. 5. fem. nom. pl.—maidens. 
—— ini. 140. 8 fem. nom. pl.—fingers as maidens. 
—— in iii. 29. 13. fem. nom. pl.—fingers as maidens. 
—— in ix. 1. 8. fem. nom. pl.—fingers as maidens. 
—— in ix. 66. 9 fem. nom. pl.— fingers as maidens. 
—— ini. 191. 14. fem. nom. pl. —Rivers as maidens. 
—— in iv. 19. 7. fem. nom. pl.—Rivers as maidens. 
—— in iv. 19. 9. fem. gen. sing.—A particular maiden. 
—— in iv. 30. 16. fem. gen. sing.—A particular maiden. 
The above shows that the primary meaning of the word is 
unmarried. wy male is a bachelor; sy female a maiden 
Fingers and rivers have been called sya: poetically. They 
have similarly been called saz: | 
