Source Request & bodhi Thanks/summary

JR Gardner jgardner at BLUE.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU
Wed Dec 3 16:54:39 UTC 1997


Greetings:

Does anyone have access to a copy of the following:

"Light, soul and visions in the Veda. Poona 1991. (Prof. P.D. Gune
Memorial Lectures.)"

Please let me know so we can arrange a fax/mailing option for which I can
reimburse as this is a time-urgent request.  Further information about
htis request is at the close of this message.

I have many thanks to all those who have thus far replied on teh bodhi
question (Chris Hibbard/E. Stern; George Cardona; Lars Martin Fosse; Alex
Michaels, R. H. Koch, and Roesler Ulricke).

While the consensus appears to be for the meaning of bhuu viz. bodhi as a
form both budh and bhuu share, there is no agreement as to a solid
grammatical derivation supporting how this might have come to be.  It
might be that a resolution favoring one root over another could be
indicated in accent (bodhi remains unaccented each occasion--to which I
now add RV 4.16.17), but I've not gotten that far without my books here at
this office (if anyone knows if accent might differ, I welcome the news).

I should also note that Roesler Ulricke has argued for wache in the sense
of watch over:

> Geldner's translation is a simplified rendering of something like "wache
> (bodhi) als Schuetzer/Helfer (avitaa) unserer Leiber" ("watch (bodhi) as
> a guardian/supporter (avitaa) over our bodies").

Under the circumstances, the two roots are not at insurmountable variance
and the phonetic wordplay between the two could very well be intentional
(cf. Elizarenkova).  Any further thoughts on the derivation from the roots
are, of course welcome.

Thank you, and thanks in advance re. the Bodewitz article (translated from
the German, from inaugural lecture in Utrecht: "Vedische Voorstellingen
omtrent de 'ziel'" ("Vedic conceptions of the soul") reported to appear in
Gune Memorial Lectures [fifth series]). If only the German is immediately
available, I'll take whichever is quickest!  Thanks to Dr. Ulricke for
this information.

jrg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Robert Gardner      Obermann Center
School of Religion         for Advanced Studies
University of Iowa       University of Iowa
319-335-2164             319-335-4034
http://vedavid.org       http://www.uiowa.edu/~obermann/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is ludicrous to consider language as anything other
than that of which it is the transformation.





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