ziva in vedas

[George Thompson]

At 04:46 PM 4/14/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>I had buried this question in a different thread.
>Apologies if I am repeating it but thought worth doing so
>as the statement from the Lexicon is intriguing.
>
>I checked the Colgne Digial Sansrit Lexicon  at
>http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/tamil/mwd_search.html
>
>for the entry "rudra" and got the following:
>".....
>in the later mythology the word %{ziva} , which  does not occur as a %{name}
>in the Veda ,..........".
>
>Is this supposed to be taken to mean that the word
>"ziva" does not occur in the vedas at all?
>
>Thanks,
>Chandra
>
>
In the RV the word *ziva'* occurs about fifty times, primarily as an
adjective, occasionally as a substantive. As an adjective it is applied to
many gods: not only to Rudra, but also to Agni, Indra, Mitra, VAyu and
PUSan. It appears in the dual modifying DyAvApRthivI. In the feminine
plural it modifies unnamed goddesses of the rivers.

Not just gods but friends in general are said to be *ziva*, as are helpers,
guests, messengers and protectors also.

There is no instance of *ziva'* as a proper name 'Shiva'.

George Thompson