Sarasvati (texts & SAFARA

[Michael Witzel]

On Tue, 26 May 1998, S. Kalyanaraman wrote:

> Isn't the earliest attestation of 'sa_gara' in Manu?

*sagara* is already found in RV: 10.89.4. But it has somehow escaped
Monier Williams. I did not check the PW, maybe it is already missing
there.  In short: don't simply trust "the dictionaries".

RV 10.089.04a  indrAya giro anizitasargA apaH prerayaM sagarasya budhnAt |

Isn't it strange that the waters come from the depth of the ocean?

 (for those who like natural science. Of course there are passages in the
post-RVic YV texts where the clouds are are said t rise form the ocean...

Then Yajurveda, Manu, Epic, etc.

But : sAgara in Manu etc.

> In Sindhi and Bengali, the lexeme means both an ocean and a
> river/lake. There is of course the tradition of
> the ocean dug up by Sagara.

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Michael Witzel                       witzel at fas.harvard.edu