[Q] Mar. mo.dasii (cholera)

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Colleagues,

A Marathi word for Cholera seems to be "mo.dasii".  This was picked up by
the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, and got into circulation in
European sources as "mordisheen" and similar words (including
"mort-de-chien", which seems very apt!).

I've looked in the obvious places (CDIAL, Mayrhofer, various Prakrit and
Pali dicts.), but can find no history for the word.

Can anyone help?

All the best,
Dominik

--
Dr Dominik Wujastyk,                FAX:        +44 171 611 8545
Wellcome Institute for              URL:        http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/
  the History of Medicine,          Email:      d.wujastyk at ucl.ac.uk
Wellcome Trust, 183 Euston Road,    Trust URL:  http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
London NW1 2BE, England.

First Rule of History:
  History doesn't repeat itself -- historians merely repeat each other.