bhakti- etc.

[N. Ganesan]

Naseem Hines wrote:
>I think the root of the noun bhakta is 'bhaj' to divide and hence
>share or participate, partake. Bhakta is the one who shares or
>partakes or consumes the same emotion or food or nourishment which
>is shared by others.

Ferenc Ruzsa wrote:
>Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya has a well argued out suggestion: the
>root of the concept would be bhaga, share, i.e. sharing in the
>tribe's affairs, first of all participating in the redistribution
>system.

> From Online Tamil Lexicon (Cologne),
 paku = 1. to distribute, apportion, allot; 2. to classify; 3. to
 explain analytically; 4. to give; 5. to divide, cut into pieces;

 vaku = 1. to separate; to divide 2. to apportion; to distribute;
 3. to classify; to allot under different heads; 4. to divide

Are the bhakti's root words in Sanskrit, 'bhaga' & 'bhaj' related
to the Tamil words 'paku' and 'vaku'?? All of them have the same
meaning. Does 'bhaga' have cognates with Old Iranian and/or IE?

--------------------------------
The first use of 'bhatti' occurs in a Buddhist text. Har Dayal,
Bodhisattva doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, p. 32,
"In fact, the very word bhakti, as a technical religious term,
occurs for the first time in Indian literature in a Buddhist
treatise and not in a Hindu scripture. The TheragAthA speaks of bhatti:
so bhattimA nAma ca hoti paNDitO ~natvA ca dhammesu visesi
assa (p. 41, lines 1-2). This anthology contains verses that go back
to the earliest period of the history of Buddhism, and its final
redaction took place in the middle of the third century B.C."

Regards,
N. Ganesan






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