vásu mf(u or vI)n. (for 2. See p. 932, col. 3) excellent, good, beneficent, [RV.]; [GṛŚrS.]
sweet, [L.]
dry, [L.]
N. of the gods (as the ‘good or bright ones’, esp. of the Ādityas, Maruts, Aśvins, Indra, Uṣas, Rudra, Vāyu, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and Kubera), [RV.]; [AV.]; [MBh.]; [R.]
of a partic. class of gods (whose number is usually eight, and whose chief is Indra, later Agni and Viṣṇu; they form one of the nine Gaṇas or classes enumerated under Gaṇa-devatā q.v.; the eight Vasus were originally personifications, like other Vedic deities, of natural phenomena, and are usually mentioned with the other Gaṇas common in the Veda, viz. the eleven Rudras and the twelve Ādityas, constituting with them and with Dyaus, ‘Heaven’, and Pṛthivī, ‘Earth’ [or, according to some, with Indra and Prajā-pati, or, according to others, with the two Aśvins], the thirty-three gods to which reference is frequently made; the names of the Vasus, according to the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa, are, 1. Āpa [connected with ap, ‘water’]; 2. Dhruva, ‘the Pole-star’; 3. Soma, ‘the Moon’; 4. Dhava or Dhara; 5. Anila, ‘Wind’; 6. Anala or Pāvaka, ‘Fire’; 7. Pratyūṣa, ‘the Dawn’; 8. Prabhāsa, ‘Light’; but their names are variously given; Ahan, ‘Day’, being sometimes substituted for 1; in their relationship to Fire and Light they appear to belong to Vedic rather than Purānic mythology), [RV.] &c. &c.
a symbolical N. of the number ‘eight’, [VarBṛS.]
a ray of light, [Naigh. i, 15]
a partic. ray of light, [VP.]
= jina, [Śīl.] (only [L.] the sun; the moon; fire; a rope, thong; a tree; N. of two kinds of plant = baka and pīta-madgu; a lake, pond; a kind of fish; the tie of the yoke of a plough; the distance from the elbow to the closed fist)
N. of a Ṛṣi (with the patr. Bharad-vāja, author of [RV. ix, 80]-[82], reckoned among the seven sages), [Hariv.]
of a son of Manu, [ib.]
of a son of Uttāna-pāda, [ib.]
of a prince of the Cedis also called Upari-cara, [MBh.]
of a son of Īlina, [ib.]
of a son of Kuśa and the country called after him, [RV.]
of a son of Vasu-deva, [BhP.]
of a son of Kṛṣṇa, [ib.]
of a son of Vatsara, [ib.]
of a son of Hiraṇya-retas and the Varṣa ruled by him, [ib.]
of a son of Bhūtajyotis, [ib.]
of a son of Naraka, [ib.]
of a king of Kaśmīra, [Cat.]
vásu (u), f. light, radiance, [L.]
a partic. drug, [L.]
N. of a daughter of Dakṣa and mother of the Vasus (as a class of gods), [Hariv.]; [VP.]
vásu n. (in Veda gen. vásos, vásvas and vásunas; also pl., exceptionally m.) wealth, goods, riches, property, [RV.] &c. &c. (°soṣ-pati m. prob. ‘the god of wealth or property’, [AV. i, 12] [[Paipp.] asoṣ-p°, ‘the god of life’]; °sor-dhā́rā f. ‘stream of wealth’, N. of a partic. libation of Ghṛta at the Agni-cayana, [AV.]; [TS.]; [Br.] &c.; of the wife of Agni, [BhP.]; of the heavenly Gaṅgā, [MBh.]; of sacred bathing-place, [ib.]; of a kind of vessel, [ib.]; °sor-dhā́rā-prayoga m. N. of wk.)
vásu n. gold (see -varma-dhara)
a jewel, gem, pearl (see -mekhala)
any valuable or precious object, [L.]
vásu n. (also f.) a partic. drug, [L.]
vásu n. a kind of salt (= romaka), [L.]
water, [L.]
a horse (?), [L.]
= śyāma, [L.]
m. or n. (for 1. See p. 930, col. 3) dwelling or dweller (see sáṃ-vasu).
vasu—deva m. N. of the father of Kṛṣṇa (he was the son of Śūra, a descendant of Yadu of the lunar line, and was also called Ānaka-dundubhi q.v., because at his birth the gods, foreseeing that Viṣṇu would take a human form in his family, sounded the drums of heaven for joy; he was a brother of Kuntī or Pṛthā, the mother of the Paṇḍu princes, who were thus cousins of Kṛṣṇa; see 1. kṛṣṇa), [MBh.]; [Hariv.]; [BhP.] &c.
of a king of the Kaṇva dynasty, [Pur.]; [Vās., Introd.]
of Kṛṣṇa, [Pañcar.]
of the grandfather of the poet Māgha, [Cat.]
(also with brahma-prasāda) of two authors, [Cat.]
vasu—deva n. the lunar mansion Dhaniṣṭhā, [VarBṛS.]
of Karṇa (half brother of the Pāṇḍu princes by the same mother, Pṛthā; the name is supposed by some to have reference to his wealth which he distributed liberally; cf. karṇa), [MBh.]