Nirukta of anugraha?

[Christopher Wallis]

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your replies. To clarify, I was wondering how the original
literal verbal sense of anu+grah "to follow in taking" came to mean "to
treat with kindness," since the semantic shift does not seem logical. To
this end, I was asking if anyone had seen a nirukta of anugraha, but alas it
seems that no-one has.  But thank you to Mr. Dipak Bhattacharya for a sound
postulation (below).

best,
Chris Wallis


On 26 December 2010 21:44, Dipak Bhattacharya <dbhattacharya200498 at yahoo.com
> wrote:

> The sense of ‘favour’ in *anugraha* – *anu-gṛh *originally * *‘to accept
> subsequently’, cf., Kauśika S.56.14 --does not appear to be old, at least
> not Vedic. The sense of favour could have grown by way of its employment as
> an antonym of *nigraha* ‘obstruction’ Yāska, N.1.3, ‘rebuke’,
> ‘tormenting’, Nyāya-S. 1.2.20. The pair of antonyms may be found the Bhakti
> and Pratyabhijñā literature.
>
> Seasonal Greetings and Best Wishes
>
> DB
>
> --- On *Mon, 27/12/10, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at GMAIL.COM>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at GMAIL.COM>
>
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] Nirukta of anugraha?
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Date: Monday, 27 December, 2010, 3:03 AM
>
>
> Dear esteemed colleagues,
>
> In an inquiry apropos to the holiday season, I wonder if any of you have
> ever seen a nirukta or nirvacana of anugraha, explaining its derivation,
> since there is no obvious connection (that I can see) between anu + grah
> and
> the meanings of anugraha.
>
> thank you,
> Chris
>
> ______________________________________
>
> Christopher D. Wallis, M.A. (Cal), M.Phil. (Oxon)
>
>
>