kArikA

[thompson at handel.jlc.net]

Ashok Aklujkar's interesting observations re the term kArikA caused me to
re-consider the complicated relationship between the roots kR-, "to act,
do", and kR- "to praise."  I do not know of early, or Vedic, uses of the
term kArikA, which is presumably derived from the first root kR-.  But I am
reminded of the controversy re the Vedic term kArú, "poet, herald", which
is generally, and with too much confidence, said to be from the second
root, kR-, "to praise," rather than from the first, kR- "to do, act" [I
think primarily for semantic rather than purely formal reasons].  Likewise
kArá in Vedic is ambiguous, possibly meaning "praise-song" [from kR-, "to
praise"], or rather "ritual act" [from kR- "to do, act"].  I am convinced
that in Vedic the semantic spheres of these two distinct verb roots have to
some extent overlapped, and in fact have influenced each other.

I have argued [following up the remarks of Renou and van Buitenen], in
papers about to appear, that the first root kR-, "to act, do", can have the
sense "to utter, i.e., to perform a speech-act."  This is evident, for
example, in the well-known use of the term kAra in the grammatical
tradition: akAra = the phoneme 'a', etc., and it is evident also in Vedic
in terms like váSaTkRti, svAhAkRti, etc. [later, of course, oMkAra]. All of
these, of course, are loaded ritual utterances.

My point, in the context of kArikA, is that the term need not have any
specific association with "poetic form" of any sort whatsoever, as Aklujkar
indeed has shown.  And yet the term kArikA may still bear the value,
approximately, of "authoritative word", just as the relevant Vedic terms
[compounds with second member kR- "to act"] can mean "to utter in a formal
or ritual context."

These ruminations about old Vedic problems may well have no relevance for
the semantic history of the term KarikA, about which I will defer to
specialists. But their *possible* relevance would seem to make the
suggestion worth the attention of those who are interested in the term
kArikA. I would be interested to hear your comments.

Sincerely,
George Thompson