Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[N. Ganesan]

DVN Sarma wrote:
> One Potala is a geographical place. The other Potala is
>a mystical place ...
>There are more than one Potala is obvious because there is the
>duplicate in Tibet and there appears to be another on the coast of
>China.

Earlier, DVN Sarma wrote:
> 1. As can be seen from the name of the Dalailama's palace which is
> potala palace, the basic word is potala and not potalaka
...
> In that case we have to say that potala and potalaka are different.

All the above statements are obscure to me. I do not understand.

All Chinese and Tibetan Potalaka are secondary derivatives of
Mt. Potalaka, the abode of Avalokitezvara mentioned in
GaNDavyUha sUtra for the first time. (2nd century AD).

  Naming other places after a famous precursor is all too common;
We have London, a small town in Ohio also.

  The veda becomes three and then four as time goes by;
In South Tamilnadu when we hear "VedakArar" it means Christians.
In Islamic Tamil texts, when we hear Veda it means Koran.
Evidently, these are named after Hindu Veda.

Academic scholars told me that P'u t'o is identical to
Mt. Potalaka.

"Chinese like to shorten Potalaka as P'u t'o.
They mean one and the same. Even though P'u t'o is an island,
Chinese always call it Mount P'u t'o" - Chun-fang Yu,
Prof. of Religion, Rutgers University

"Ganesan, I don't think there is much point in trying to
distinguish between Potala and Potalaka" - Geoffrey Samuel,
author of Civilized shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan societies, 1993
(which I immensely enjoy reading).

David Snellgrove & Hugh Richardson,
A cultural history of Tibet, p. 200
"Potala palace is named after the holy mountain Potala in
Southern India, which is sacred to Shiva as 'Lord of the World'.
(Lokezvara)".

Pl. note the Saivaite link to Mt. Potala here also.
Potala and Potalaka are one and the same.

Regards
N. Ganesan






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