Oriya word: 'kalasaa' or 'ka.lasaa'

[Arlo Griffiths]

Dear Indologists,

During a recent tour in search for mss. among the Atharvavedins of Orissa, I
came across a ms. for AVP kaa.n.das 1-5 which had a note written on it, by
the former owner/user which said merely "kalasaa" (or, if my notes are
incorrect, perhaps with the retroflex lateral: "ka.lasaa", in any case with
long final -aa, thus not the same as (semi)tatsama ka.lasa 'jar'). Neither
of the two Oriya dictionaries available to me (NABA ABHIDHAANA and TARU.NA
;SABDAKO.SA) has a lemma "kalasaa".
    Still, several Atharvavedic priests claimed to know the word (but they
were not able to give a satisfactory explanation). I suspect this may be a
technical term having to do with some aspect of the ms.-transmission of the
AVP.
    If anyone has access to the PUUR.NACANDRA O.RIAA BHAA.SAAKO.SA, and
could check whether ka(.)lasaa is mentioned there, or if anyone can think of
possible cognates in related languages, I would be very grateful.

I may add: a (perhaps) similar case of a technical terms used by
Atharvavedic priests not registered in any of the Oriya dictionaries is
kaa.rhe.nii, obviously derived from kaa.rhibaa 'to extract', a term used for
the full recitation of repeated text given only once in full, and thereafter
in abbreviation in the mss.


-- Arlo Griffiths

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