mfn. (fr. madhyama-) relating to the middle, middlemost, central (also applied to the composers of the middle portion of the ṛg-- veda-id est of books ii-vii)
f. (in astronomy) the central meridian of the earth (a line conceived to be drawn through laṅkā-, ujjayinī-, kuru-kṣetra-, and meru-; seemadhya-rekhā-).
मध्यम a. [मध्ये भवः म] 1 Being or standing in the middle, middle, central; पितुः पदं मध्यममुत्पतन्ती V.1.19; मध्यमोपलम् Ki.9.2; so मध्यमलोकपालः, मध्यमपदम्, मध्यमरेखा q. q. v. v. -2 Intermediate, intervening; नाप्नोद्यो$यं मध्यमः प्राणस्तानि ज्ञातुं दध्रिरे Bṛi. Up.1.5.21. -3 Middling condition or quality, mediocre; as in उत्तमाधममध्यम. -4 Middling, moderate; तेन मध्यमशक्तीनि मित्राणि स्थापितान्यतः R.17.58. -5 Middle-sized. -6 Neither youngest nor oldest, the middleborn (as a brother); प्रणमति पितरौ वां मध्यमः पाण्डवो$यम् Ve.5.26; ततो$र्धं मध्यमस्य स्यात् तुरीयं तु यवीयसः Ms.9.112. -7 Impartial, neutral. -8 Mean (in astr.). -9 Belonging to the meridian. -मः 1 The fifth note in music. -2 A particular musical mode. -3 The mid-land country; see मध्यदेश. -4 The second person (in grammar). -5 A neutral sovereign; धर्मोत्तरं मध्यममाश्रयन्ते R.13.7. -6 the middle-most prince; मध्यमस्य प्रचारं च विजिगीषोश्च चेष्टितम् Ms.7.155. -7 the middle character in plays. -8 The governor of a province. -9 An epithet of Bhīma; (cf. मध्वमव्यायोग). -मा 1 The middle finger. -2 A marriageable girl, one arrived at the age of puberty. -3 The pericarp of a lotus. -4 One of the classes of heroines (Nāyikās) in poetic compositions, a woman in the middle of her youth; cf. S. D. 1. -5 A central blossom. -मम् 1 The middle. -2 The waist; तदैव यन्न दग्धस्त्वं धर्षयंस्तनुमध्यमाम् Rām.6.111.24. -3 The defectiveness. -4 (In astr.) The meridian ecliptic point. -Comp. -अङ्गुलिः the middle finger. -आगमः one of the four Āgamas; Buddh. -आहरणम् (in alg.) elimination of the middle term in an equation. -उत्खातः a particular division of time. -उपलः = मध्यमणिः q. v.; मध्यमोपलनिभे लसदंशौ Ki.9.2. -कक्षा the middle courtyard. -खण्डम् the middle term of an equation. -गतिः (in astr.) the mean motion of a planet. -ग्रामः (in music) the middle scale. -जात a. middle-born. -पदम् the middle member (of a compound). ˚लेपिन् m. a subdivision of the Tatpuruṣa compound in which the middle word is omitted in composition; the usual instance given is शाकपार्थिवः which is dissolved as शाकप्रियः पार्थिवः; here the middle word प्रिय is omitted; so छायातरु, गुडधानाः &c. -पाण्डवः an epithet of Arjuna. -पुरुषः the second person (in grammar). -पूरुषः a mediocre person. -भृतकः a husbandman or cultivator (who works both for himself and his master or landlord). -यानम् the middle way to salvation. -रात्रः midnight. -राष्ट्रकम् a variety of diamonds; Kau. A.2.11.29. -रेखा the central meridian of the earth. -लोकः the middle world, the earth. ˚पालः a king; तां ...... अन्वग्ययौ मध्यमलोकपालः R.2.16. -वयस् n. middle age. -वयस्क a. middle-aged. -संग्रहः intrigue of a middling character, such as sending presents of flowers &c. to another's wife; it is thus defined by Vyāsa :-प्रेषणं गन्धमाल्यानां धूपभूषणवाससाम् । प्रलोभनं चान्नपानैर्मध्यमः संग्रहः स्मृतः ॥ -साहसः the second of the three penalties or modes of punishment; see Ms.8. 138. (-सः, -सम्) an outrage or offence of the middle class. -स्थ a. being in the middle.
माध्यमक a. (-मिका f.) माध्यमिक a. (-की f.) Middle, central. -काः (m. pl.) 1 N. of a people or their country in the central part of India. -2 N. of a Buddhist school; भगवत्पूज्यपादाश्च शुष्कतर्कपटूनमून् । आहुर्माध्यमिकान् भ्रान्तानचिन्त्ये$स्मिन् सदात्मनि ॥ Pañchadaśī 2.3.
spv. middlemost, situ ated between; being in the middle, central; of medium kind or strength, middle-sized, middling, mediocre, moderate; neutral; m. =Madhya-desa; middle=fourth orfifth note in the scale; one of the three musical scales; second person (gr.); m. n. middle of the body, waist; n. middle; meridian.
a. in which the middle word is dropped (com pound: e. g. sâka-pârthiva=vegetable, sc. loving, king); -purusha, m. kind of personi fication; second person (gr.); -pûrusha, m. mediocre person; -bhâva, m. moderate dis tance; -râtra, m. midnight; -loka, m. mid dle world=earth: -pâla, m. protector of earth, king, -½indu, m. moon of earth, king; -vayas-á, n. middle age; -½ashtakâ,f. eighth day in the dark fortnight of Mâgha.
a. belonging to the middle, central, inhabiting the middle of the country; m. pl. composers of the middle of the Rig-veda (books II to VII): -ka, a. (i-kâ) relating or belonging to the middle region (the atmosphere); i-ka, a. id.; m. pl. N. of a people in Midland (Madhya-desa).
‘Seizing alive,’ is, according to Roth, the term, for a police official in the Rigveda. But although this sense is rendered possible by the mention of Madhyamaśī, perhaps ‘ arbitrator,’ in the same passage, it is neither necessary nor probable.
Are the regular words, the latter in the Rigveda, and both later, for ‘ law ’ or ‘ custom.’ But there is very little evidence in the early literature as to the administration of justice or the code of law followed. On the other hand, the Dharma Sūtras contain full particulars.Criminal Law.—The crimes recognized in Vedic literature vary greatly in importance, while there is no distinction adopted in principle between real crimes and what now are regarded as fanciful bodily defects or infringements of merely conventional practices. The crimes enumerated include the slaying of an embryo (
occurs in the śatapatha Brāhmana applied to Prajāpati as the decider of doubts; it may have been a technical term for an ‘arbitrator’ (cf, Madhyamaśī and Dharma).
Denotes generally enquiry’ or ‘disputed question,’ the phrase praśnam eti having the sense ‘ he asks a person for the decision of a disputed point ’ in the Taittirīya Samhitā and elsewhere. Thus Praána comes to have the definite meaning of ‘ decision ’ in the Aitareya Brāhmana. In the list of victims at the Puruṣamedha (‘ human sacrifice ’) in the Yajurveda4 are included the Praśnin, the Abhi-praánin, and the Praśna-vivāka; it is quite likely that here the three parties to a civil case are meant—the plaintiff, the defendant, and the arbitrator or judge (Madhyamaśī).
Is the name of a people who appear throughout Vedic literature as of little repute. Though the name is not actually found in the Rigveda, it occurs in the Atharvaveda, where fever is wished away to the Gandhāris and Mūjavants, northern peoples, and to the Añgfas and Magadhas, peoples of the east. Again, in the list of victims at the Purusamedha (‘ human sacrifice ’) in the Yajurveda,3 the Māgadha, or man of Magadha, is included as dedicated to ati-krusta, ‘ loud noise ’ (?), while in the Vrātya hymn of the Atharvaveda[1] the Māgadha is said to be connected with the Vrātya as his Mitra, his Mantra, his laughter, and his thunder in the four quarters. In the śrauta Sūtras6 the equipment characteristic of the Vrātya is said to be given, when the latter is admitted into the Aryan Brahminical community, to a bad Brahmin living in Magadha ·(brahma-bandhu Māgadha-deśīya), but this point does not occur in the Pañcavimśa Brāhmaṇa. On the other hand, respectable Brahmins sometimes lived there, for the Kausītaki Araṇyaka mentions Madhyama, Prātībodhī-putra, as Magadha-vāsin, ‘living in Magadha.’ Oldenberg, however, seems clearly right in regarding this as unusual. The Magadhas are evidently a people in the Baudhāyana and other Sūtras, possibly also in the Aitareya Araṇyaka. It is therefore most improbable that Zimmer can be right in thinking that in the Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda the λlāgadha is not a man of Magadha, but a member of the mixed caste produced by a Vaiśya marrying a Kṣatriya woman. But the theory of mixed castes, in any case open to some doubt, cannot be accepted when used to explain such obviously tribal names as Māgadha. The fact that the Māgadha is often in later times a minstrel is easily accounted for by the assumption that the country was the home of minstrelsy, and that wandering bards from Magadha were apt to visit the more western lands. This class the later texts recognize as a caste, inventing an origin by intermarriage of the old-established castes. The dislike of the Magadhas, which may be Rigvedic, since the Kīkatas were perhaps the prototype of the Magadhas, was in all probability due, as Oldenberg13 thinks, to the fact that the Magadhas were not really Brahminized. This is entirely in accord with the evidence of the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa14 that neither Kosala nor Videha were fully Brahminized at an early date, much less Magadha. Weber15 suggests two other grounds that may have influeṇced the position—the persistence of aboriginal blood and the growth of Buddhism. The latter consideration is hardly applicable to the Yajurveda or the Atharvaveda; but the imperfect Brahminization of the land, if substituted for it in accordance with Oldenberg’s suggestion, would have some force. The former motive, despite Olden- berg’s doubt, seems fully justified. Pargiter18 has gone so far as to suggest that in Magadha the Aryans met and mingled with a body of invaders from the east by sea. Though there is no evidence for this view in the Vedic texts, it is reason¬able to suppose that the farther east the Aryans penetrated, the less did they impress themselves upon the aborigines. Modern ethnology confirms this a priori supposition in so far as it shows Aryan types growing less and less marked as the eastern part of India is reached, although such evidence is not decisive in view of the great intermixture of peoples in India.
The ‘Middle Country,’ is, according to the Mānava Dharma śāstra, the land between the Himālaya in the north, the Vindhya in the south, Vinaáana in the west, and Prayāga (now Allahabad) in the east that is, between the place where the Sarasvatī disappears in the desert, and the point of the confluence of the Yamunā (Jumna) and the Gañgā (Ganges). The same authority defines Brahmarsi-deśa as denoting the land of Kuruksetra, the Matsyas, Pañcālas, and śūrasenakas, and Brahmāvarta as meaning the particularly holy land between the Sarasvatī and the Drṣadvatī. The Baudhāyana Dharma Sūtra4 defines Áryāvarta as the land east of Vinaśana; west of the Kālaka-vana, ‘ Black Forest,’ or rather Kanakhala, near Hardvār; south of the Himālaya; and north of the Pāriyātra or the Pāripātra Mountains; adding that, in the opinion of others, it was confined to the country between the Yamunā and the Gañgā, while the Bhāllavins took it as the country between the boundary-river (or perhaps the Saras-vatī) and the region where the sun rises. The Mānava Dharma śāstra, in accord with the Vasiṣṭha Dharma Sūtra, defines Áryāvarta as the region between the Vindhya and the Himālaya, the two ranges which seem to be the boundaries of the Aryan world in the Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad also. The term Madhyadeśa is not Vedic, but it is represented in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa by the expression madhyamā pratisthā diś, ‘ the middle fixed region,’ the inhabitants of which are stated to be the Kurus, the Pañcālas, the Vaśas, and the Uśīnaras. The latter two peoples practically disappear later on, the Madhyadeśa being the country of the Kuru-Pañcālas, the land where the Brāhmaṇas and the later Samhitās were produced, bounded on the east by the Kosala-Videhas, and on the west by the desert. The western tribes are mentioned with disapproval both in the śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, while the tradition of the Brahminization of the Kosalas and the Videhas from the Kuru-Pañcāla country is preserved in the former Brāhmaṇa.
‘Descendant of Māndūka,’ is the patronymic of several teachers in the Rigveda Áranyakas—viz., śūravīra, Hrasva, Dīrgha, Madhyama Prātībodhīputra. The Māṇ- dūkeyas also occur as a school in the Araṇyakas: a special form of the text of the Rigveda evidently appertained: to them.®
King,' is a term repeatedly occuring in the rigveda and the later literature. It is quite clear that the normal, though not universal form of government, in early India was that by kings, as might be expected in view of the fact that the Āryan Indian were invaders in a hostile territory : a situation which, as in the case of Ārayan invaders of Greece and German invaders of England, resulted almost necessarily in strengthening the monarchic element of the constitution. The mere patriarchal organization of society is not sufficient, as Zimmer assumes, to explain the Vedic kingship. Tenure of Monarchy.—Zimmer is of opinion that while the Vedic monarchy was sometimes hereditary, as is indeed shown by several cases where the descent can be traced,® yet in others the monarchy was elective, though it is not clear whether the selection by the people was between the members of the royal family only or extended to members of all the noble clans. It must, however, be admitted that the evidence for the elective monarchy is not strong. As Geldner argues, all the passages cited can be regarded not as choice by the cantons (Viś), but as acceptance by the subjects (viś): this seems the more prob¬able sense. Of course this is no proof that the monarchy was not sometimes elective: the practice of selecting one member of the family to the exclusion of another less well qualified is exemplified by the legend in Yāska of the Kuru brothers, Devāpi and śantanu, the value of which, as evidence of contemporary views, is not seriously affected by the legend itself being of dubious character and validity. Royal power was clearly insecure: there are several references to kings being expelled from their realms, and their efforts to recover their sovereignty, and the Atharvaveda contains spells in the interest of royalty. The King in War.—Naturally the Vedic texts, after the Rigveda, contain few notices of the warlike adventures that no doubt formed a very considerable proportion of the royal functions. But the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa contains the statement that the Kuru-Pañcāla kings, who, like the Brahmins of those tribes, stand as representatives of good form, used to make their raids in the dewy season. The word Udāja, too, with its variant Nirāja, records that kings took a share of the booty of war. The Rigveda13 has many references to Vedic wars: it is clear that the Kṣatriyas were at least as intent on fulfilling their duty of war as the Brahmins on sacrificing and their other functions. Moreover, beside offensive war, defence was a chief duty of the king: he is emphatically the ‘ protector of the tribe* (gopā janasya), or, as is said in the Rājasūya (‘royal consecration’), ‘protector of the Brahmin.’14 His Purohita was expected to use his spells and charms to secure the success of his king’s arms. The king no doubt fought in person: so Pratardana met death in war according to the Kausītaki Upanisad;16 and in the Rājasūya the king is invoked as ‘sacker of cities’ (purāψ bhettā). The King in Peace.—In return for his warlike services the king received the obedience—sometimes forced—of the people, and in particular their contributions for the maintenance of royalty. The king is regularly regarded as ‘ devouring the people,’ but this phrase must not be explained as meaning that he necessarily oppressed them. It obviously has its origin in a custom by which the king and his retinue were fed by the people’s contributions, a plan with many parallels. It is also probable that the king could assign the royal right of mainten¬ance to a Ksatriya, thus developing a nobility supported by the people. Taxation would not normally fall on Kṣatriya or Brahmin; the texts contain emphatic assertions of the exemption of the goods of the latter from the royal bounty. In the people, however, lay the strength of the king. See also Bali. In return the king performed the duties of judge. Himself immune from punishment (a-daiidya), he wields the rod of punishment (Daṇda). It is probable that criminal justice remained largely in his actual administration, for the Sūtras preserve clear traces of the personal exercise of royal criminal jurisdiction. Possibly the jurisdiction could be exercised by a royal officer, or even by a delegate, for a Rājanya is mentioned as an overseer (adhyaksa) of the punishment of a śūdra in the Kāthaka Samhitā. In civil justice it may be that the king played a much less prominent part, save as a court of final appeal, but evidence is lacking on this head. The Madhyamaśi of the Rigveda was probably not a royal, but a private judge or arbitrator. A wide criminal jurisdiction is, however, to some extent supported by the frequent mention of Varuna’s spies, for Varuṇa is the divine counterpart of the human king. Possibly such spies could be used in' war also. There is no reference in early Vedic literature to the exercise of legislative activity by the king, though later it is an essential part of his duties. Nor can we say exactly what executive functions devolved on the king. In all his acts the king was regularly advised by his Purohita ; he also had the advantage of the advice of the royal ministers and attendants (see Ratnin). The local administration was entrusted to the Grāmartī, or village chief, who may have been selected or appointed by the'king. The outward signs of the king’s rank were his palace and his brilliant dress. The King as Landowner.—The position of the king with regard to the land is somewhat obscure. The Greek notices,30 in which, unhappily, it would be dangerous to put much trust, since they were collected by observers who were probably little used to accurate investigations of such matters, and whose statements wore based on inadequate information, vary in their statements. In part they speak of rent being paid, and declare that only the king and no private person could own land, while in part they refer to the taxation of land. Hopkins is strongly of opinion that the payments made were paid for protection —i.e., in modern terminology as a tax, but that the king was recognized as the owner of all the land, while yet the individual or the joint family also owned the land. As against Baden- Powell, who asserted that the idea of the king as a landowner was later, he urges for the Vedic period that the king, as we have seen, is described as devouring the people, and that, according to the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, the Vaiśya can be devoured at will and maltreated (but, unlike the śūdra, not killed); and for the period of the legal Sūtras and śāstras he cites Bṛhaspati and Nārada as clearly recognizing the king’s overlordship, besides a passage of the Mānava Dharma Sāstra which describes the king as ‘lord of all a phrase which Būhler35 was inclined to interpret as a proof of landowning. The evidence is, however, inadequate to prove what is sought. It is not denied that gradually the king came to be vaguely con¬ceived—as the English king still is—as lord of all the land in a proprietorial sense, but it is far more probable that such an idea was only a gradual development than that it was primitive. The power of devouring the people is a political power, not a right of ownership; precisely the same feature can be traced in South Africa,3® where the chief can deprive a man arbitrarily of his land, though the land is really owned by the native. The matter is ultimately to some extent one of terminology, but the parallel cases are in favour of distinguishing between the political rights of the crown, which can be transferred by way of a grant, and the rights of ownership. Hopkins37 thinks that the gifts of land to priests, which seems to be the first sign of land transactions in the Brāhmaṇas, was an actual gift of land; it may have been so in many cases, but it may easily also have been the grant of a superiority : the Epic grants are hardly decisive one way or the other. For the relations of the king with the assembly, see Sabhā ; for his consecration, see Rājasūya. A rāja-tā, lack of a king,’ means‘anarchy.’
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