Mahabharata 5.172.20 follow-up

[Richard P Hayes]

Status: RO

> Well, no helpful variants from the crit. ed., unfortunately.  Nor
> from the collation with the "Saaradaa MS, nor from the addenda
> and corrigenda.  We are faced with what we've got.  So I reckon
> the verse has to mean "... wherever I go, may I meet good people..."
> where gataya.h is in apposition to santa.h.  Gati can mean refuge,
> resource, according to MW (ref. Manu, Ramayana ...).
 
Apte's Practical Sanskrit-English dictionary also gives "recourse,
shelter, refuge, asylum, resort" for gati and cites these two passages:
 
vidyamaanaa gatir ye.saam  (Pa~ncatatra 1.320, 322)
 
aasayat salile p.rthvii.m ya.h sa me "sriiharir gati.h (Siddhaanta
    Kaumaudii---no page or suutra reference given)
 
As for the term _sat_, Apte offers the following equivalents (among
others): noble, worthy, wise, learned, firm, steady. "Steady" and "firm"
easily suggest "strict". Thus van Buitenen seems to have been on solid
ground in giving the rendering he did.
Richard