Sanskrit word for...

[Guest guest]

Dear Allen,

 

You and Dr. Bahulkar have essentially asked me the same question. I

reproduce below what the latter wrote to me in a personal communication

because his observations have some general utility like the ones in the

second part of your post:

>I do not have Raghuvira's Dictionary here ... What is the source of the word

vyaadha-pata:nga? Does Raghuvira refer to any classical or modern Sanskrit text?

I believe the word is a coined one. In classical Sanskrit literature, we find

the words pata:nga, ;salabha and khadyota, generally meaning 'moth.' In modern

Sanskrit, the word citrapan.ga is used in the sense of butterfly (See,

Monier-William's English-Sanskrit Dictionary.<

 

The situation is unclear as to whether Raghu Vira coined or invented the

word. The policy he adopted in the dictionary was to stay away from citing

textual occurrences that would support his establishment of correspondences

or coinages. Given the immense scope of what he wished to achieve and the

readership he wished to serve, it is understandable that he kept his entries

simple and did not make them difficult to follow for those who did not know

Sanskrit or the higher vocabulary registers of Indian languages. Also,

almost each establishment of correspondence would have required a long

discussion requiring reference to field observations and cognates in later

Indian languages etc.

 

The fact that Raghu Vira renders "dragon" in the sense of 'flying lizard' by

u.d.dayi-godhikaa (a nice but obvious coinage), "dragon's blood" in the

sense of 'Geranium robertianum' with rakta ka.saaya-muula, "dragon's blood"

in the sense of 'sanguis draconis' with naaga-rakta, "dragon's eye" in the

sense of 'Nephelium longan' with naagaak.si, and "dragon tree" in the sense

of 'Dracaena draco' with pranaaga-v.rk.sa (most probably a coinage)

indicates that vyaadha-pata:nga was actually attested in his view. Normally,

he maintains consistency in the prefixes or qualifying first members of the

equivalents he coins.

 

On the other hand, it is also possible that he took into consideration the

'hunting' feature of the creature concerned (I assume, perhaps wrongly, that

dragonflies prey upon smaller insects) and coined vyaadha-pata:nga.

 

Perhaps the vocabulary cards prepared for the dictionary of Skt on

historical principles at Deccan College would help us in determining if

yaadha-pata:nga occurs.

 

To the useful general observations Dr. Bahulkar and you make, I will simply

add a note of caution implicit in the following general observations. We

know relatively little about how much material life was expressed in Skt.

The popularity of poetic and religio-philosophical texts has probably given

us skewed dictionaries. It cannot be doubted that Skt took words from many

languages (including tribal), particularly for material objects, while

managing the (amazing) feat of maintaining (overall) constancy of morphology

and phonology over a large area for a long time. The acceptance of words

involved both 'sense translations' and 'sound translations.'

 

Let me use the occasion to make a remotely relevant comment. Much fun has

been made of Raghu Vira's work in modern India (partly for political reasons

and partly out of ignorance -- the fun-makers obviously have not read even

the introduction of his _A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary ...). The

few who know his name nowadays are wont to say that he suggested

agni-ratha-gamanaagamana-suucaka-taamra-niila-loha-pa.t.tikaa as a

translation for '(train) signal' or that ka.n.tha-la:ngo.ta was his

indianization of "tie" (as a part (commonly) of men's dress). Neither is

found in Raghu Vira. In fact, a compound shorter than the one just cited,

that is, agni-ratha-gamana-aagamana-suucaka-loha-pa.t.tikaa, has been used

by Raghu Vira on p. 49 of his introduction precisely to tell us how one

should NOT coin Indian equivalents for English words. He may not seem

relevant to those who take a narrow view of linguistics and hold that a

linguist's job is to describe languages as they are, not to prescribe

anything or to work for preserving a certain form of a particular language.

However, those who think that we need to preserve the variety of languages

and the different possibilities of creativity they offer should accord a

place of high honour to Raghu Vira. Even for those who view Sanskrit as a

language accessible to us only through some pre-modern texts, his analysis

and rearrangement of vocables is instructive and useful. Linguists and

policy makers in India need to re-evaluate a tragic hero.

 

ashok aklujkar

 

 

> Allen W Thrasher <athr (AT) loc (DOT) gov>

> Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:31:26 -0500

 

> 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." ...

> nothing like the number of words for insects and other "worms and bug" that

> you find in vernacular English. ... Guenther-Dietz Sontheimer told me the

tribals in

> Maharashtra could distinguish and had names for far more plants than the

> peasants.

[Guest guest]

Ashok Aklujkar schreef:

> The situation is unclear as to whether Raghu Vira coined or invented the

> word. The policy he adopted in the dictionary was to stay away from citing

> textual occurrences that would support his establishment of correspondences

> or coinages. [...]

> On the other hand, it is also possible that he took into consideration the

> 'hunting' feature of the creature concerned (I assume, perhaps wrongly, that

> dragonflies prey upon smaller insects) and coined vyaadha-pata:nga.

 

The 7-volume Sanskrit-German dictionary of Böhtlingk and Roth does not

have the word, nor does the 6-volume Sanskrit-Kannada

;Sabdaarthakaustubha.h of C.S. Gopalacharya. But even if it is a

coinage, the word is nicely suggestive.

 

Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos

Head, Department of Asian Studies

Institute of Indology

Munich University

Germany

Tel. (+49-89-) 2180-5782

Fax (+49-89-) 2180-5827

Web http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~zydenbos