orphan/orphanage

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I wrote a short comment on "anaatha" in the medical context in Roots of 
Ayurveda, 2003 edition, p.13, where the commentator includes the term in a 
list of people who a doctor should not treat.  This includes poor people 
and the anaatha, the "one who has nobody to look after their interests".

D



On Mon, 24 Jul 2006, Ashok Aklujkar wrote:

> 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
>