The passages where árushî means simply a mare, without any reference to colour, are VIII, 68, 18, and VIII, 55, 3.

It is curious that Arushá, which in the Veda means red, should, as pointed out before, in its Zend form aurusha, mean white. That in the Veda it means red, and not white, is shown, for instance, by X, 20, 9, where svetá, the name for white, is mentioned by the side of arushá. Most likely arushá meant originally brilliant, and became fixed with different shades of brilliancy in Sanskrit and Persian. Arushá presupposes a form ar-vas, and is derived from a root ar in the sense of running or rushing. See Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii, pp. 135, 137.

Having thus explained the different meanings of arushá and árushî in the Rig-veda, I feel it incumbent, at least for once, to explain the reasons why I differ from the classification of Vedic passages as given in the Dictionary published by Boehtlingk and Roth. Here, too, the passages in which arushá is used as an adjective are very properly separated from those in which it appears as a substantive. To begin with the first, it is said that 'arushá means ruddy, the colour of Agni and his horses; he (Agni) himself appears as a red-horse.' In support of this, the following passages are quoted:

III, 1, 4. ávardhayan su-bhágam saptá yahvî´h svetám gagñânám arushám mahi-tvâ´, sísum ná, gâtám abhí âruh ásvâh. Here, however, it is only said that Agni was born brilliant-white a, and grew red, that the horses came to him as they come to a new-born foal. Agni himself is not called a red-horse.

III, 7, 5. Here, again, vríshnah arushásya is no doubt meant for Agni. But vríshan by itself does not mean horse, though it is added to different names of horses to qualify them as male horses; cf. VII, 69, I, â´ vâm ráthah vríshabhih yâtu ásvaih, may your chariot come near with powerful horses, i. e. with stallions. See note to I, 85, 12. We are therefore not justified in translating arushá vríshan by red-horse, but only by the red male, or the red hero.

In III, 31, 3, agníh gagñe guhvẫ régamânah mahâ´h putrâ´n arushásya pra-yákshe, I do not venture to say who is meant by the maháh putrâ´n arushásya, whether Âdityas or Maruts, but hardly the sons of Agni, as Agni himself is mentioned as only born. But, even if it were so, the father of these sons (putra) could hardly be intended here for a horse.

IV, 6, 9. táva tyé agne harítah ghrita-snâ´h róhitâsah rigu-áñkah su-áñkah, arushâ´sah vríshanah rigu-mushkâ´h. Here, so far from Agni being represented as a red-horse, his different horses, the Haríts or bays, the Róhitas or

ruddy, and the arushâ´sah vríshanah, the red stallions, are distinctly mentioned. Here vríshan may be translated by stallion, instead of simply by male, because arushá is here a substantive, the name of a horse.