Akṣu. — The word occurs in two passages of the Atharvaveda1 and one of the Rigveda.2 Roth3 renders it by ‘net,’ while Böhtlingk4 suggests ‘axle of a car.’ Geldner5 sees in it a stake or pole used with a fishermen's net (Jāla),6 the pole of a wagon,7 and the pole of a house, whether vertical or horizontal, he leaves uncertain (see Vaṃśa).8 Bloomfield9 takes it as a covering of wickerwork stretched across a beam and sloping down to both sides — like a thatched roof, and this best explains the epithet ‘thousand-eyed’ (i.e., with countless holes) ascribed to it. In the other Atharvaveda passage10 he accepts the sense ‘net,’ and doubts if the word in the Rigveda is not an adjective (a-kṣu) as it is taken by Sāyaṇa. See also Gṛha.[Footnote] 1) viii. 8, 18 (akṣujālābhyām); ix. 3, 18. [Footnote] 2) i. 180, 5. [Footnote] 3) St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.[Footnote] 4) Dictionary, s.v.[Footnote] 5) Vedische Studien, 1, 136. [Footnote] 6) Av. viii. 8, 18. [Footnote] 7) Av. i. 180, 5. [Footnote] 8) ix. 3, 18. [Footnote] 9) Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 598. [Footnote] 10) Av. viii. 8, 18. Cf. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 153, 265; Whitney, Translation of the Atharvaveda, 506, 526; Oldenberg, Ṛgveda-Noten, 1, 179.