Dear Sam,

'vipra' is- a well-attested word in  Vedic, starting with the Rigveda.  It has a solid Avestan cognate, 'vifra', with a similar semantic range as in Vedic: 'trembling, shaking, inspired, ecstatic.'  Among its many Indo-European cognates is Latin 'vibrare' [to vibrate], as well as English 'wipe.' 

In the RV 'vipra' is frequently associated with nouns that are more or less synonyms with the term 'Brahmin': e.g., rsi and kavi.

In my view, 'vipra' is a word that is rooted in the earliest cultural strata in the RV that preserve memory of Central Asian shamanism.

See Jan Gonda: *The Vision of the Vedic Poets.*  This book's Index will steer you toward useful discussions of this word.  See also Louis Renou: *Etudes sur le vocabulaire de Rgveda* [see index des mots etudies], as well as Renou's EVP I [index of words].  There is also useful discussion in J.W. Hauer: *Die Anfaenge der Yoga Praxis im Alten Indien [see Sachregister 'vipra'].

I can't help you with 16th-17th century evidence. I hope that this is helpful.

Best wishes,

George Thompson

On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Samuel Wright <swright@nalandauniv.com> wrote:
Dear List Members,

Can anyone point me to any studies dealing with the uses/meanings of the term 'vipra'? While it is usually glossed as 'brāhmaṇa', I'm wondering if there were any semantic changes in this term, particularly in the 16th/17th centuries.

Keith and MacDonnell's 'Vedic Index' (page 302, vol. 2) provides some very early glosses such as "inspired singer" but then it is noted that "[i]n the epic style it comes to mean no more than 'Brahmin.'"

Yet, Medhatithi comments on Manusmrti 3.199:

vipragrahaṇam anuvādatvāt kṣatriyādipradarśanārtham |

I'm also aware of Staal's very brief remarks in his article 'Sanskrit and Sanskritization' (pg. 267).

Any suggestions would be appreciate on why the word 'vipra' might be used as opposed to 'dvija' or 'brāhmaṇa' as well as which studies on the word are available, if any.

Many thanks,
Sam

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