annāyu

II. Bahuvr. Living through food (see anna 2. 2.); an epithet

of the vital air apāna q. v., in the Aitareya Upanishad,

because it alone was capable to seize the primitive food,

created from the waters by the Supreme Soul, after speech,

the vital air prāṇa q. v., eye, ear, skin (i. e. touch), manas and

the generative organ were unable to take possession of, and

thus of preserving, life through it. In the passage alluded

to there is a quibble on the word āyu, according to its

having the sense of ‘obtaining’ from the corresponding

meaning of the rad. ī, vī, or the sense of āyus ‘life’;

as the word occurs in the nomin. annāyuḥ, it may, as a

Bahuvr., represent also the form annāyus. The radical ī

having the same meaning as vī and probably being identical

with it in origin, the words vayat and vāyu ‘air or taking’,

in the same passage, complete the double sense of the pun:

‘tad (i. e. annaṃ) apānenājighṛkṣattadā vayat . sa eṣo'nnasya

graho (comm. = annagrāhakaḥ) yadvāyurannāyurvā eṣa yadvāyuḥ;

comm.: yo vāyurannāyurannabandhano'nnajīvano vai prasiddhaṃ sa eṣa

yo vāyuḥ. E. anna and āyu.