Identification of rivers

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

Dear Colleagues,
The rivers originate in the Western Himalayas or some adjacent range and 
some of them flow thru Kashmir. But they flow down through 
Panjab/Haryana. So one cannot be definite about the Kashmir connection 
tho that is possible. Definite evidence is necessary before drawing a 
firm conclusion.
There is a tendency among us to connect anything that 
might lie in or be just adjacent  to the regions surrounding Kashmir, to
 the  valley itself. But that may lead to unconscious errors.One has to 
be careful.
Best wishes for all
DB

--- On Thu, 28/4/11, Walter Slaje <slaje at T-ONLINE.DE> wrote:

From: Walter Slaje <slaje at T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Identification of rivers
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Thursday, 28 April, 2011, 3:06 PM

Dear Jim,

Śatarudrā (occurs also in the Matsyapurāṇa, see pw) is mentioned by Al-Bīrūnī in his enumeration of rivers having their source in the Himavat (Sachau, Vol. 1: ch. 25).
Sircar identifies it with the Śatadru river (Geography of Ancient and Medieval India 1971: 51, n. 3).

> Śatarudrā might be a corruption of Śatadru ( = Sutlej).
Śatadru/°drū itself seems to be the result of post-vedic folk etymology (ved. śutudrī, etc.), and the situation could have been similar with the formation of Śatarudrā (and possibly also with Śrīrātri) as deliberate attempts of giving these rivers an easily comprehensible meaning. "Corruption" in the strict sense is perhaps not applicable to such names.


Best, Walter

------------------------------
Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
D-99425 Weimar
(Germany)
www.indologie.uni-halle.de

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