Turtles in Vedic Sacrifice and the Dravidian concept of

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 98-07-18 00:52:39 EDT, Palaniappa writes:

<< Many thanks to Georg v.Simson for this suggestion. I explored this
suggestion further using Pali-English Dictionary and Buddhist Suttas. The
Dictionary says that the derivation and meaning are doubtful and refers to
Buddhist Suttas (p.178-9) which has a long discussion about tittika and says
"it is almost certain that the original word had nothing to do with tIrtha".
Moreover, in the CT poem, tittikam is described as "fire-rising". So obviously
it referred to a fire-place and not a path or crossing or a container and the
probability of tittika being the source seemed low.  >>

I should clarify something here. If tittika originally is not from tIrtha but
from a word meaning a vessel, then one could connect it to the sacrificial
altar in the following manner. If the raised altar has a crater-like hollow
into which the fuel and oblations are placed, then that can be thought of as a
vessel or bowl.

Regards
S. Palaniappan