Snakes

Stephen Hodge s.hodge at PADMACHOLING.FREESERVE.CO.UK
Mon Jul 12 22:57:30 UTC 2004


Jonathan Silk wrote:

> Dict. of Tse ring dbang rgyal 115b1: bya gag = nakulii , dauksha, the
> latter obscure to me (the Skt in this dictionary often appears in
> forms that require considerable decoding), the former meaning female
> ichneuomon, acc to MW--thus not a snake, but in fact the enemy of a
> snake...
Yes, I was aware of that.  This makes me wonder just how reliable some
supposed Skt equivalents are for Tibetan words that are given in the various
such compilations.  The problem with works such as the one you cite is that
no references are given.  I suspect that when words were unfamilar to
Tibetan translators, they just made their best guesses -- which is what we
still do when all else fails :)  [Like our old friend the "camel-smoke
insect"].

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge





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