asamātirāthaprauṣṭha

Asamāti Rātha-prauṣṭha. — The story of the quarrel between

Asamāti, the Ikṣvāku prince of the Rathaproṣṭha family, and

his priests, the Gaupāyanas, is found only in the later

Brāhmaṇas.¹ It appears to be based on a misreading of the

Rigveda,² where asamāti is merely an adjective. The later

story is that the king was induced to abandon his family priests

by two Asuras, Kirāta and Ākuli, who by their magic com-

passed the death of Subandhu, one of the brother priests, and

that the others revived him by the use of the hymns (Rigveda,

x. 57-60). [Footnote] 1) Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, iii. 167

(Journal of the American Oriental Society,

18, 41 et seq.); Sāṭyāyanaka, cited in

Sāyaṇa on Rv. x. 57, 1; 60, 7; Bṛhad-

devatā, vii. 83 et seq., with Macdonell's

notes; Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, xiii.

12, 5. [Footnote] 2) x. 60, 2. 5; Av. vi. 79, 1. Cf. Bloom-

field, Hymns of the Atharvaveda, 499;

Max Müller, Journal of the Royal Asiatic

Society, 1866, 426-465; Böhtlingk's

Dictionary, s.v.; Hopkins, Transactions

of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and

Sciences, 15, 48, n. 1.