"Saisha" as the name of a goddess?

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

Dear Madhavji,
evamkaaro ie the evam mayaa sutam the standard beginning of the Pali suttas became a holy saying in Sanskrit Buddhism represented by a symbol in in Manranaya ;  michael means 'who is like God'?' You certainly know that a deity has been addressed in the Rigveda ehimaayasa built from ehi maa yaasiiH  'come do not go'. Find some similarity? I think there are other example too.
DB

--- On Mon, 8/3/10, Deshpande, Madhav <mmdesh at UMICH.EDU> wrote:


From: Deshpande, Madhav <mmdesh at UMICH.EDU>
Subject: "Saisha" as the name of a goddess?
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Monday, 8 March, 2010, 8:09 PM


Dear Indologists,

Recently I met a Brahmin family from Karnataka who have a newborn daughter named "Saisha".  They asked me what the word means.  I could not think of a Sanskrit word close to "Saisha."  Then the grandfather said that this is a name of goddess Lakshmi used in a Sanskrit stotra popular among followers of Ramanuja.  The line from the stotra he recited was:  saiṣā devī sakala-bhuvana-prārthanā-kāmadhenuḥ.  It was immediately apparent to me that the "Saisha" was simply sā eṣā, and not a name of the goddess, but I was not able to convince the grandfather of the child, who fervently argued that "Saisha" was an authentic name of the goddess.  I wonder if others have come across similar examples.

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-1608, USA
________________________________________
From: Indology [INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Alexander von Rospatt [rospatt at BERKELEY.EDU]
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 3:42 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Update: Berkeley Summer Program: Words of Wisdom: Toward a Western Terminology for Buddhist Texts

Dear Colleagues,

there are still a few free places on the 2010 Berkeley Summer Program: Words of Wisdom: Toward a Western Terminology for Buddhist Texts.

I would be grateful if you could remind potentially interested students of this special opportunity. The announcement can now also be found online at http://mangalamresearch.org/summer.htm. 

With many thanks (and apologies for cross-listing with H-Buddhism),


Alexander von Rospatt

------------

Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages
Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California
Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University

Summer Program: Words of Wisdom: Toward a Western Terminology for Buddhist Texts
Berkeley, CA, USA. June 14-July 2, 2010
Core Faculty: Luis Gomez, Michael Hahn
Associate Faculty: Paul Harrison, Alexander von Rospatt, Carmen Dragonetti, Fernando Tola

Putting the Dharma into the words of a new culture is a task that has traditionally unfolded over several generations. In the West, where the languages of educated discourse are sophisticated and rich with layers of meaning, the challenges of being able to convey the Buddhist teachings as faithfully as possible are especially daunting.
This intensive three-week program, intended primarily for graduate students in Buddhism, Indology, or allied fields, is a small step toward a clear and consistent terminology or (more modestly) developing skills and strategies for finding the best translation equivalents in contemporary English.
The text for the program is the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra. We will read the Sanskrit together with the Tibetan and Chinese translations. This close reading will address problems of interpretation, as well as the technical and stylistic challenges faced by the translator of classical Buddhist texts. Students should have facility in Sanskrit; knowledge of Tibetan or Chinese will be helpful.
Format and Facilities Guided by distinguished faculty, students will meet 5 hours a day, five days a week to work with the challenges posed by the text. Sessions will be held from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm. Meals are provided, and housing is an easy walk. Students will have access to the libraries of the Mangalam Research Center and the University of California at Berkeley (a 10-minute walk). Rapid Transit to San Francisco is half-a-block away.
Focus The focus will be on key terms of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa-sūtra in the context of the profound Mahayana vision it sets forth. We will examine vocabulary choices in  both source and target languages, sensitive to subtle shifts in meaning between languages with different philosophical underpinnings. Among the topics to be explored and skills to be honed:
•  Sanskrit roots, etymology, and the relation of Buddhist Sanskrit to other forms of Sanskrit
•  Issues of context and intertexuality.
•  comparison with the Tibetan and Chinese, with reference to commentaries.
•  stylistic choices and terminology in existing translations in both canonical and modern languages
•  general issues in the theory and practice of translation as they arise in rendering a classic Buddh ist text into a modern idiom.
Costs: Tuition: $1,200 (includes lunch daily). Food and lodging: $1,350. Total cost: $2,550.

Applications The program is intended for advanced graduate students, but applications from all qualified candidates will be considered. Please submit an application by March 15, 2010 to summerprograms at mangalamresearch.org. Include a short statement of purpose, a description of language skills and how acquired, and a 1–2 paragraph letter of endorsement from your principal adviser. Students completing the program will receive a formal letter from the Buddhist Studies program of the University of California, Berkeley, certifying that the course corresponds to a semester long graduate seminar of fifteen weeks with five hours of instruction per week."

Maximum number of participants is 15. Applicants will be notified by April 10, 2010.



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