Etymology of the words 'vedi' in ritual context

[Periannan Chandrasekaran]

--- Periannan Chandrasekaran <perichandra at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> --- George Thompson <GthomGt at CS.COM> wrote:
> > In a message dated 6/26/00 10:43:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > witzel at FAS.HARVARD.EDU writes:
> >
> > > See M.  Mayrhofer's new Etymologisches  Woerterbuch des Altindoarischen,
> > >  Heidelberg 1996- vol II, p. 581 :  ~~ veda'  bunch of grass... ; veda'
> =
> > >  unclear < IE *wei(H)d- ? Pashto  wula 'root fibre, twifg'?   etc etc.
> > >
> > >
> > Hello Michael,
> >
> > I have always found tempting, though not utterly persuasive, the following
> > etymology first proposed by Johansson and re-affirmed by Thieme:
> >
> > ve'di  <  *(a)va-zd-i  [from ava-sad-].
> >
> ...> >
> > I would think that this etymology strengthens the link between ve'di and
> > veda', 'grass bundle.'
> >
> > I would be curious to know: what do you and others on the list think of
> this
> > proposal?
>
> In this regard I would like to draw your attention to the old Tamil words
> for plants belonging to the grass family viz.,  bamboo, kaus grass and cane
> and
> sugarcane:
> vetir, vetiri, vetiram, vEzam, vENu, vayir, vEy, vEral, vElai etc.
>
> DEDR #5485: vetir, vetiri, vetiram, vayir
> DEDR #5541: vEzam, vEy, vEyal
>
> These are all widely attested in CT rich in portrayal of nature.
>
> Some of these like vetir, vEzam are used interchangeably for one or more or
> even all of the above plants showing that they were all classified as grasses
> of some sort obvious from their jointed appearance.
>

A small but important note to those who may be unfamiliar with Dravidian
phonetics:
the intervocalic -t- in the above cited words would be pronounced as
-d-. e.g., vetir as vedir.


...>
> Regards
> P.Chandrasekaran.
>
Regards again,
P.Chandrasekaran.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/