dakinis (was: bones and flesh)

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 11/12/99 6:47:08 PM Central Standard Time,
s.hodge at PADMACHOLING.FREESERVE.CO.UK writes:

> 1.    The earliest known occurence of the term ".daakinii" is in the
>  Gangdhar stone found at the site of old ruins in Gangaadhara, 52 miles
>  SW of Jhalrapatan, Jhalawar State dated 424CE.  It especially
>  emphasizes the shouting and tumultuous noise made by the .daakiniis.
>  The term may have been use a little earlier as it seems to occur in
>  the Meat-eating Chapter of the Lankavatara Sutra.
>
>  2.    I would link the use of the word .daakinii with the early Gupta
>  conquest / occupation of the Kalinga area which covered much of the
>  places inhabited by Austro-asiatic speakers.


Before one reaches any conclusions on this, one should consider that the
equivalent of DAkinI perhaps occurs first in Tamil cilappatikAram, (if only
DAka is the form found earlier in Sanskrit texts) in the following line.

iTu piNam tin2n2um iTAkin2i pEy vAgki (cil.9.21)

Here iTAkini (Skt. DAkinI) is a goblin which eats the corpses at the burial
ground. The episode is an interesting one.

I have shown in earlier Indology postings that cilappatikAram must be
pre-Kalidasa. Also the date of Lankavatara Sutra had also been discussed
earlier.

Regards
S. Palaniappan