Guest guest Posted October 24, 2006 Report Share Posted October 24, 2006 Dear group, Maybe someone can tell me what is the Sanskrit word for Dragon fly? Thanks, Shankar. All-new Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Raghu Vira's (1955) _A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary ..._ p. 548 gives vyaadha-pata:nga (masculine) as the word. ashok aklujkar On 10/24/06 3:30 AM, "shankar" <bhikshu108 (AT) (DOT) co.in> wrote: Maybe someone can tell me what is the Sanskrit word for Dragon fly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I too have been asking that question for long. The unrehearsed answer that I got from a young Oriya Brahmin, when pointing out a specimen, was : patanga. Not exactly very specific... MW On Oct 27, 2006, at 9:02 PM, Ashok Aklujkar wrote: > Raghu Vira's (1955) _A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary ..._ > p. 548 > gives vyaadha-pata:nga (masculine) as the word. > > ashok aklujkar > > > On 10/24/06 3:30 AM, "shankar" <bhikshu108 (AT) (DOT) co.in> wrote: > > Maybe someone can tell me what is the Sanskrit word for Dragon fly? > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 30, 2006 Report Share Posted October 30, 2006 Ashok Aklujkar <aklujkar (AT) INTERCHANGE (DOT) UBC.CA> wrote: Raghu Vira's (1955) _A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary ..._ p. 548 gives vyaadha-pata:nga (masculine) as the word. ashok aklujkar On 10/24/06 3:30 AM, "shankar" <bhikshu108 (AT) (DOT) co.in> wrote: Maybe someone can tell me what is the Sanskrit word for Dragon fly? By coincidence I happened to be told the other day that the Marathi word for dragonfly is catur, which I supposed to refer to its four wings. Phillip Shivajinagar Find out what India is talking about on - Answers India Send FREE SMS to your friend's mobile from Messenger Version 8. Get it NOW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Do you suppose Raghuvira invented this? My impression is that Sanskrit is rather weak in words for different sorts of insects and what the Bible calls "creeping things." (Actually Sanskrit calls them that as well: sarIsRpa.) Patanga seems to do for butterflies, moths, and all other sorts that fly. Then there are words for bees and locusts/grasshoppers (as being economically imortant). Then the indragopa for its bright red color, and the cochineal insect for its economic use. But nothing like the number of words for insects and other "worms and bug" that you find in vernacular English. Is the same true in the South Asian vernaculars? Do they have different names for a lot of different butterflies, which might draw attention because they are large and colorful? I don't recall many superstitions about such beasties, certainly not in the way there are systematized ones about birds and house-lizards. Their absence in prognostics could go along with a failure to distinguish among them. I recall again that Guenther-Dietz Sontheimer told me the tribals in Maharashtra could distinguish and had names for far more plants than the peasants.. But did either make distinctions amongst invertebrates with no economic importance? Allen Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Senior Reference Librarian South Asia Team, Asian Division Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150 101 Independence Ave., S.E. Washington, DC 20540-4810 tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr (AT) loc (DOT) gov The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress. >>> aklujkar (AT) INTERCHANGE (DOT) UBC.CA 10/27/06 9:02 PM >>> Raghu Vira's (1955) _A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary ..._ p. 548 gives vyaadha-pata:nga (masculine) as the word. ashok aklujkar On 10/24/06 3:30 AM, "shankar" <bhikshu108 (AT) (DOT) co.in> wrote: Maybe someone can tell me what is the Sanskrit word for Dragon fly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 Allen W Thrasher schreef: > My impression is that Sanskrit is rather weak in words for different sorts of insects and what the Bible calls "creeping things." (Actually Sanskrit calls them that as well: sarIsRpa.) Patanga seems to do for butterflies, moths, and all other sorts that fly. Then there are words for bees and locusts/grasshoppers (as being economically imortant). Then the indragopa for its bright red color, and the cochineal insect for its economic use. Many years back, I knew a biologist in Utrecht whose specialization was in dragonflies :-) and who also studied Sanskrit and Tibetan. She was a little 'disappointed' that Sanskrit had only one word for 'dragonfly' while Tibetan had six. (I don't know what that 'one word' was, and I lost contact with her, so unfortunately I can't enquire.) > But nothing like the number of words for insects and other "worms and bug" that you find in vernacular English. Is the same true in the South Asian vernaculars? [...] I can't say for all of them, but a language like Kannada seems significantly richer than Sanskrit. I suspect this is due simply to the vernaculars being living languages for everyday use, by means of which concrete matters in the physical surroundings are discussed more frequently and with more urgency. This would also explain why Tibetan has more words than Sanskrit for 'dragonfly'. (I wouldn't be surprised if, for a similar reason, English has more such words than Latin - not counting the biological names of recent coinage.) Most Sanskrit authors clearly had other interests, and this is reflected in the development of the vocabulary. See the number of Sanskrit words for psychological matters, 'consicousness' or 'mind'... I wonder how many languages in the world can compete with Sanskrit in that field. RZ Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos Head, Department fuer Asienstudien Institut fuer Indologie Universitaet Muenchen Deutschland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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