Too many synonyms?

[S Krishna]

Devarakonda Venkata Narayana Sarma writes:
>For one action we find many verbs like
>
>bhU, asa = to be
>gam, s.r, char etc. = to move

I would request for a small clarification in this context... If I am not
wrong, with respect to the Bhu-as question,doesn't the "as" root
"collapse" into the "bhU" root in the future tense? i.e. sa: Aseet( he
was), sa: asti( he is), sa: bhavishyati( he will be), i.e. what I'm
trying to say is in the future tense, there is no difference between the
declining of the "as" and "bhU" roots. But in the present and past
tenses , doesn't the "bhU" dhatu translate better as "to become" than
"to be"?i.e. there is a slight difference between saying "X Y-nagarasya
nrpati:asti" and "X Y-nagarasya nrpati: bhavati". I believe we are
talking about SLIGHTLY different meanings here....
                             -------


>
>In nouns there are many names for the same object (paryAya padAs) and
>many meanings to a single noun (nAnArthas).

I think that we also need to keep in mind that some of these paryAya
padas have the same meaning in slightly different( and at times related)
contexts but translate loosely into English the same way, but there are
others which are "perfect" synonyms i.e. the later can be represented by
say rAma, rAghava, sItapati etc all of which are synonyms for rAma
whereas an example of the former case is the word "prEma"...I've seen
books list prEma, mamatA, praNaya etc as synonyms but I believe these
refer to love/affection in different contexts, i.e. mamata refers to
maternal affection, praNaya refers to conjugal love...i.e. they are
loosely translatable as love but vary in the "degree" and "addressee" so
to speak....

 I believe that wrt the para appearing below,may I venture and add
another "trivial" argument: it can be said that proper nouns which are
synonyms can also develop from different features of a given
person/object i.e. rAma,sItapati,dAzarathi are synonyms which developed
from different aspects/qualities of rAma.


>One of the theories about their existence is that aryans acquired these
as they wandered through different lands with defferent dilects and
laguages. I would like to know the present thinking.
>
>sarma.
>


Regards,
Krishna

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