कक्षीवन्त्

यन्त्रोपारोपितकोशांशः

Vedic Index of Names and Subjects

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

Kakṣīvant is the name of a Ṛṣi mentioned frequently in the Rigveda, and occasionally elsewhere. He appears to have been a descendant of a female slave named Uśij. He must have been a Pajra by family, as he bears the epithet Pajriya, and his descendants are called Pajras. In a hymn of the Rigveda he celebrates the prince Svanaya Bhāvya, who dwelt on the Sindhu (Indus), as having bestowed magnificent gifts on him; and the list of Nārāśaṃsas (‘Praises of Heroes’) in the Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra mentions one by Kakṣīvant Auśija in honour of Svanaya Bhāvayavya. In his old age he obtained as a wife the maiden Vṛcayā. He appears to have lived to be a hundred, the typical length of life in the Vedas. He seems always to be thought of as belonging to the past, and in a hymn of the fourth book of the Rigveda he is mentioned with the semi-mythical Kutsa and Kavi Uśanas. Later, also, he is a teacher of bygone days.

In Vedic literature he is not connected with Dīrghatamas beyond being once mentioned along with him in a hymn of the Rigveda. But in the Bṛhaddevatā he appears as a son of Dīrghatamas by a slave woman, Uśij.

Weber considers that Kakṣīvant was originally a Kṣatriya, not a Brāhmaṇa, quoting in favour of this view the fact that he is mentioned beside kings like Para Āṭṇāra, Vītahavya Śrāyasa, and Trasadasyu Paurukutsya. But that these are all kings is an unnecessary assumption: these persons are mentioned in the passages in question undoubtedly only as famous men of old, to whom are ascribed mythical sacrificial performances, and who thus gained numerous sons.