ahi.msaa in Hindu texts

[George Thompson]

At 11:56 AM 1/11/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>Hanns Peter Schmidt,
>                        THe Origin of AhiMsA.  Melanges d'Indianism a la
memoire de Louis Renou.
>Paris 1980
>                        AhiMsA and Rebirth' in Inside the Texts, Beyond
the Texts: New approaches
>to the study of the Veda,'  M. Witzel, editor, 1997
>

I agree with Carlos Lopez that these two articles are a good place to
start. I would also add that though the term ahiMsA itself does not occur
in the RV we do find forms like a'hiMsat, a'hiMsAna, and a'hiMsyamAna,
which suggest that the concept is known already in the RV.

And if we consider RV a'ghnyA, which = Avestan ag at niia*, 'not to be
harmed', then it is likely that something rather like the ahiMsA doctrine
was known in Indo-Iranian times. See the famous 'Lament of the Cow', Yasna
29 of the Avestan Gathas.

a'ghnyA has been discussed by Narten in her edition of the Yasna
HaptaNhAiti, though I don't recall that she makes any connection with ahiMsA.

Is anyone aware of more recent discussion of these terms?

Sorry if this is tardy,

George Thompson

[* the character _ at _ represents schwa, for lack of a better representation]

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK]On Behalf
>> Of Kristen
>> Hardy
>> Sent: Monday, January 11, 1999 11:08 AM
>> To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
>> Subject: ahi.msaa in Hindu texts
>>
>>
>> Dear List-Members,
>>
>>         Could anyone on the list advise me as to when the
>> term "ahi.msaa"
>> first came to be used in orthodox Hindu literature? Does the
>> word exist in the
>> Vedic sa.mhitaas (and if so, in what context)?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Kristen Hardy,
>> (student of Religion and Sanskrit),
>> University of Manitoba
>>
>> umhardy at cc.umanitoba.ca
>>
>
>