ऋत्विज्

Sanskrit

Alternative scripts

Etymology

Traditionally considered a compound of ऋतु (ṛtú, season) +‎ यज् (yaj, to worship).[1][2]
However, Lubotsky thinks the nominative in -क् (-k) (instead of etymologically expected -ट् (-ṭ) when derived from यज् (yaj)) points to the same suffix -इज् (-ij) as in उशिज् (uśíj).[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

ऋत्विज् • (ṛtvíj) stemm [2][4]

  1. seasonal-sacrificer
    • c. 1500 BCE – 1000 BCE, Ṛgveda 1.1.1:
      अ॒ग्निमी॑ळे पु॒रोहि॑तं य॒ज्ञस्य॑ दे॒वम्ऋ॒त्विजं॑
      होता॑रं रत्न॒धात॑मं॥
      agnímīḷe puróhitaṃ yajñásya devámṛtvíjaṃ.
      hótāraṃ ratnadhā́tamaṃ.
      I praise Agni, the chosen priest, the divine, the ministrant of the sacrifice, who presents the oblation to the gods, and is the possessor of great wealth.

Declension

Masculine root-stem declension of ऋत्विज्
singular dual plural
nominative ऋत्विक् (ṛtvík) ऋत्विजौ (ṛtvíjau)
ऋत्विजा¹ (ṛtvíjā¹)
ऋत्विजः (ṛtvíjaḥ)
accusative ऋत्विजम् (ṛtvíjam) ऋत्विजौ (ṛtvíjau)
ऋत्विजा¹ (ṛtvíjā¹)
ऋत्विजः (ṛtvíjaḥ)
instrumental ऋत्विजा (ṛtvíjā) ऋत्विग्भ्याम् (ṛtvígbhyām) ऋत्विग्भिः (ṛtvígbhiḥ)
dative ऋत्विजे (ṛtvíje) ऋत्विग्भ्याम् (ṛtvígbhyām) ऋत्विग्भ्यः (ṛtvígbhyaḥ)
ablative ऋत्विजः (ṛtvíjaḥ) ऋत्विग्भ्याम् (ṛtvígbhyām) ऋत्विग्भ्यः (ṛtvígbhyaḥ)
genitive ऋत्विजः (ṛtvíjaḥ) ऋत्विजोः (ṛtvíjoḥ) ऋत्विजाम् (ṛtvíjām)
locative ऋत्विजि (ṛtvíji) ऋत्विजोः (ṛtvíjoḥ) ऋत्विक्षु (ṛtvíkṣu)
vocative ऋत्विक् (ṛ́tvik) ऋत्विजौ (ṛ́tvijau)
ऋत्विजा¹ (ṛ́tvijā¹)
ऋत्विजः (ṛ́tvijaḥ)
  • ¹Vedic

References

  1. ^ Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎[1] (in German), volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 258
  2. 2.0 2.1 Monier Williams (1899), “ऋत्विज्”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, [], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 224, column 2.
  3. ^ Lubotsky, Alexander (2011), The Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon (in progress) (Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Project), Leiden University, page 429
  4. ^ Hellwig, Oliver (2010–2025), “ṛtvij”, in DCS - The Digital Corpus of Sanskrit, Berlin, Germany.