Vishpala

Who is Vishpala?

Vishpala is a woman mentioned in the Rigveda. The name is likely from viś "settlement, village" and bala "strong", meaning something like "protecting the settlement".

Vishpala, "seeking booty", is helped in battle by the Ashvins. As she lost her leg "in the time of night, in Khela's battle", they gave her a "leg of iron" so that she could keep running.

The interpretation as a female warrior in battle is due to Griffith, the interpretation as a horse race is due to Karl Friedrich Geldner.

As is often the case in the Rigveda, especially in the young books 1 and 10 a myth is only alluded to, the poet taking for granted his audience's being familiar with it, and beyond the fact that the Ashvins gave Vishpala a new leg, no information has survived, neither about Vishpala herself nor about "Khela's battle", or indeed the character of Khela.

Nevertheless, the allusion qualifies as the earliest reference to the concept of a prosthesis, while in Sayana's interpretation it can also be taken as an early reference to a female warrior.