Dear François,

Mayrhofer (1926-2011), on p. 310-311 of his KEWA vol. II (1963), refers to two places where Louis Renou (1896-1966) discussed púrīṣa:

Journal Asiatique 1939 p. 387ff and Etudes Védiques et Paninéennes 4 (1958) 81f.

On p. 148 of his EWAIA vol. II (1996), Mayrhofer again refers to a later publication of Renou that appeared posthumously: EVP XVI (1967) p. 87, 108.

At both these places, Renou refers back to his own article entitled púrīṣa -- I think this is finally the study you had in mind -- in IIJ 4 (1960) p. 104-110.

It is no doubt surprising that under the lemma púrīṣa Mayrhofer did not refer to this 1960 detailed study by Renou directly, but only to the two very brief 1967 references to it.

In any case we may infer from these later references that the conclusion of this article remained Renou's final view:

"Avant donc d'imaginer une acception toute nouvelle pour les emplois rgvédiques, il nous semble plus raisonnable d'y reconnaître une utilisation poétique, une transposition des valeurs telles que nous les constations dans la littérature rituelle.

("Before imagining an entirely new meaning for the Rgvedic uses [of púrīṣa], it seems to us more reasonable to recognize in them a poetic use, a transposition of values such as we have observed in the ritual literature [Brāhmaṇas, Śrautasūtras etc. discussed in the article].")

On the basis of Renou's 1960 study several of the translations of púrīṣa, purīṣín, and, once, purīṣyà, in the RV translation by Jamison-Renou 2014 need to be reconsidered.

All best,

On Mon, 14 Mar 2022 at 18:12, François Voegeli via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear All,

Renou wrote a study on purISa but I don't remember where and when.
Does anyone has the references of this study? A pdf welcomed.

Thanks in advance,

François Voegeli

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