bodhisattva/bodhisatva

[Jonathan Silk]

Ah. This may well be (without reading it of course I say nothing), but
irrespective of the history, *within Sanskrit* °satva was, I think it is
fair to say, always understood as °sattva; the question then is simply one
of orthography. But this is far from the only case in which degemination
occurs, another reason to uncouple the question of etymology/history from
that of orthography.

JAS

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 12:30 AM, Walter Slaje <slaje at t-online.de> wrote:

> The passage I have referred to contains a thorough excursus on the
> linguistic and notional development of the term "bodhi-satva" (roughly:
> *sakta > °satta > °satva).
>
> WS
>
>  "Jonathan Silk" <mailto:kauzeya at GMAIL.COM> schrieb:
> > I am afraid that at the moment I do not have to hand the review cited by
> Prof Slaje, but anyway, so-called failure to geminate on the one hand, and
> Paninian but 'irregular' gemination on the other (e.g., karmma etc) are
> regular features of many Buddhist Sanskrit (or if one insists, 'hybrid'
> Sanskrit) manuscripts, not limited to those of Nepal. (Sometimes this is
> script-dependent; in so-called Khotanese-style MSS we find even prrajñ
> etc., although the language is Sanskrit) I would not consider it a
> linguistic feature at all, merely ('merely'?) a habit of scribes. I am not
> even sure that I would be willing to go so far as to compare it to the
> habit
> (which I personally find charming) of scholars like Edgerton and Bloomfield
> to write elefant and the like.
>
> Jonathan Silk
>
> On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:10 PM, Walter Slaje <mailto:slaje at t-online.de>
> wrote:
>
> > > Dear Victor,
> > > Everyone, including you, has spelt 'bodhisattva'. All the manuscripts i
> > have consulted read 'bodhisatva'! I wonder if anyone has given a thought
> to
> > if the latter is not incorrect? DB
> >
> >
> > On bodhi-sattva /°satva cp.
> >
> > Oskar von Hinueber, Ein Meilenstein in der Erforschung des
> > zentralasiatischen Buddhismus.
> > Zu einem neuen Katalog khotan-sakischer Handschriften
> > (Skjærvø, Prods Oktor: Khotanese Manuscripts from Chinese
> > Turke stan in the British Library: a complete catalogue with texts
> > and translations, London 2002), ZDMG 157. 2007, 385-394
> > ("bodhisattva"-elucidation on pp.387-389)
> > WS
>
> --
> J. Silk
> Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
> Postbus 9515
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>
>  --
> Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
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> -----------------------------------------
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> www.indologie.uni-halle.de
> -----------------------------------------
> Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
> me studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
> non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
> sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
> humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
> Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.
>



-- 
J. Silk
Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
Postbus 9515
2300 RA Leiden
Netherlands