stem (?) of munja grass

[Ashok Aklujkar]

"Grass" in English explanations of mu;nja may owe itself to someone's
'mechanical' translation of the traditional gloss t.r.na-vi;se.sa. However,
in Skt usage t.r.na is not restricted to what we call grass in English; cf.
t.r.naraaj 'vine palm,' t.r.na-raaja 'cocoa-nut tree,' 'bamboo,'
'sugarcane,' 'palmyra tree,'  t.r.na-v.rk.sa 'fanpalm tree' and t.r.na;saala
'areca-nut tree, ' 'bamboo' recorded on p. 782 of Apte's dictionary enlarged
by Gode et al.  These identifications show some uncertainty or conflation,
but they establish that t.r.na is not confined to what commonly makes lawns.



On 30-03-2002 04:39, "Yaroslav Vassilkov" <yavass at YV1041.SPB.EDU> wrote:

>should we really call it a grass: I have read somewhere
> that
> this plant could reach sometimes 3 meters in height.