orphan/orphanage

[Ashok Aklujkar]

anaatha can refer to anyone lacking a protector, caretaker etc.; it is
clearly wider in meaning than "orphan" and occurs with that wider meaning in
appeals to gods and goddesses.

If a society has extended/joint family system, adoptive relationships (the
bhaa.ii-bahan way of relating to other community members) taken seriously
and, on the whole, little mobility (geographically as well as in terms of
social arrangement), would it really need a type-casting or set-denoting
term for someone who is oprhaned? Occasionally it may need to speak of a
person as maat.r-pit.r-vihiina (/virahita), but it is unlikely to feel the
need to speak of his/her condition in a generalizing or institutionalizing
way.

ashok aklujkar




On 7/24/06 3:03 PM, "Jonathan Silk" <silk at HUMNET.UCLA.EDU> wrote:

> Can anyone tell me of a classically attested Skt term for orphanage
> and/or orphan? As far as I can see, the forms cited by
> Monier-Williams in Eng-Skt Dict are not classical Skt., and I have
> been unable to locate a clear example in my perhaps insufficent
> search. (One candidate is anaatha, but I'm not sure it ever clearly
> refers to orphan).
> 
> thanks so much!  JAS