More questions about technical subjects

SILK at AC.GRIN.EDU SILK at AC.GRIN.EDU
Fri Nov 4 18:10:59 UTC 1994


        With, once again, the aim of getting a little help, and encouraging
*scholarly* discussion on this list, I ask a series of questions, begging
the help of my learned colleagues.  (A similar attempt recently did not
garner much response, to my disappointment, but my heartfelt thanks to
those of you who did send me hints, on the list or privately).  Now:

1)      In the _Divyaavadaana_  (Cowell and Neil ed.) 258.8-10 we find the
following:  aham evopaaya.m sa.mvidhaasye ityuktvaa vi.sam aadaaya
samitaayaa.m ni"srayitvaa ma.n.diilakaan paktvaanye 'pi ca nirvi.saa.h
paktaa.h /.  "Saying 'I myself shall arrange the means,' she mixed poison
with wheat flour and cooked *sweetmeats, and she cooked some others also
without poison."  Question:  what does ma.n.diilaka mean?  I cannot find
the term anywhere.  Should it be connected with ma.n.daka (a thin pancake
or kind of baked flour), or Hindi / Marathi maa.mra (a thin pancake)?

2)      A few lines after the previous passage we find:  pa"scaat tena
pitraa saardham ekaphalaayaa.m bhuñjataa tasya pitu.h savi.saa
ma.n.diilakaa dattaa aatmanaa nirvi.saa.h prabhak.sitaa.h / yato 'sya pitaa
taan savi.saan ma.n.diilakaan bhak.sayitvaa m.rta.h /  "Then later together
with his father, while eating *on a single plank,* he gave his father
poisonous sweetmeats and himself ate the nonpoisonous ones.  Then his
father, having eaten those poisonous sweetmeats, died."  Question:  what
does ekaphalaayaa.m mean?

3)      Again, a few lines below:  pa"scaat tair i.s.tasnigdhasuh.ridbhir
ba.nigbhi.h "socayitvaa yat tat tu ki.mcit tasya ba.nijo bhaa.n.dam aasiid
dhira.nyasuvar.na.m vaa tat tasya daarakasya dattam /  "Later, the merchant
was lamented by those merchants, beloved loving friends ---- but whatsoever
merchandise or gold or valuables that merchant had, that was given to the
boy."  Something seems wrong with the Skt.  Any suggestions?

4)      259.20-22:  sa daarako guu.dha"satro bhutvaarhanta.m bhojayitu.m
<add aarabdo?> maatraa saha nirjana.m g.rha.m k.rtvaa sa caarhadbhik.sur
bhuktvaa tasmaad g.rhaad vi"srabdhacaarakrame.na pratinirgata.h /  "The boy
having concealed a weapon began to feed the saint, *and with his mother
dismissed the servants.*  The saint-monk having eaten confidently
proceeding departed from that house."  I cannot understand maatraa saha
nirjana.m g.rha.m k.rtvaa.  Any help?

5)      260.2-3:  The son, criticizing his mother, says:  amba
niv.rttaved.r"saad do.saat /  "Mother!  Turn back from this fault (such a
fault as this)!"  niv.rttava must be a 2nd sing. imperative, but I cannot
cite a parallel formation.  I assume it is from ni-v.t:  *nivu.t.tati >
*nivu.t.tasva > niv.rttasva??  Any suggestions?

6)      _Mahaavastu_ (Senart) I.244.1-2:  ta.m putrasnehena nivaareti maa
tatra paaradaariko ti k.rtvaa bhaatayi.syati //.  I cannot understand what
is going on exactly.  The previous sentence says:  "[Meghadatta] fell in
love with another man's wife, whom he visited early and late."  Then our
sentences:  "[Her] mother kept him away out of affection for her child."
So far this is OK.  But the next part seems to mean:  "Thinking 'I hope
there is no adulterer here,' [or else?] I will kill him."  There are no
significant variants.  Any suggestions?

7)      In the _Kathaako"sa_  (edited by I. Hoffmann, trans. Tawney)
appears the term Candrahaasaa as a sort of wine.  "Sabdakalpadruma defines
the word as gu.duucii, but since this is a poisonous plant (cocculus
cordifolius =? cocculus indicus?), it seems unlike to be a source of wine.
Candrahaasaa means that which mocks the moon in clarity, so is it some sort
of clear liquor?

8)      In the same story a cock tears open the finger of Ko.nita, which is
how he gets his name.  The term for what happens to the finger is kuu.nita,
which BR has as "zusammengezorgen, eingeschnuert."  Tawney rendered
"whitlow," and Hoffmann "Der finger begann zu faulen."  If the word is
taken to be etymologically Skt., would not it be from kuu.n?  The sense
then should be something like atrophy, not inflammation, right?  In Pkt.
(Sheth) the word is given as equivalent to sa.mkocita, contracted,
shriveled up."  Any suggestions?

I hope this is more fun than political nonsense, and look forward to the
kind and generous assistance of my colleagues in cyberspace.

Jonathan Silk
SILK at AC.GRIN.EDU


 






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