Terms for Negation ?

[Deshpande, Madhav]

Hello Stephen,

There is a negative term anāvṛtti and it occurs in the Brahmasūtra (anāvṛttiḥ śabdāt).  At the moment I do not have the text of the Brahmasūtra at hand to give you the  specific reference.  I don't know if this term fits your textual context.  Best,

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 Stephen Hodge [s.hodge at PADMACHOLING.PLUS.COM]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:29 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Terms for Negation ?

Dear All,

Thanks for the various suggestions on- and off-list. They have been helpful
in general terms and will be of use in the future. However, I do not think
they help with the term I am seeking to establish.

Birgit:  The word in question is T: bzlog-pa with C: 遮, which normally
retroverts to "vyāvartana". In this instance, it occurs in one passage
forming part of Ch14 of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra which contains a
varṇa-patha allocated various doctrinal significations letter by letter.
This version is interesting since it has no connection with the

well-known A RA PA CA NA ones from NW India, nor, in terms of content, with
those found elsewhere following the standard sequence of sounds. Most
noteworthy is that it was originally based on a shorter Prakrit varṇa-patha,
as can be seen in many of the term or explanations allocated to the
individual letters.

The specific lemma with "bzlog-pa" is:

aṃ zhes bya ba ni nga'i bstan pa la <rung ba ma yin pa> thams cad <bzlog pa
dang> | gser dang dngul spangs pa ste | <de bas na> bzlog pa'i don du aṃ
zhes bya'o ||

Here I believe that "aṃ" is understood as the negative prefix "an-" ~ hence
my enquiry. The bracketed portions do not belong to the hyparchetype, but
are interpolations from two textual lineages that have been merged to form
the extant Tibetan text.

Birgit: Why have you put quotes around retrovert ? I am curious. Are you not
very familiar with the term ? True, it is not used much in Buddhist circles
though it ought to be. The terms retrovert and retroversion are widely used
in Biblical Studies, esp LXX research, to describe exactly what I, and you
too on occasion, am doing with Buddhist materials. See for example, Emmanuel
Tov's "Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research" which could
be studied with benefit by any Buddhist scholar working with Tibetan or
Chinese translation material, though the need for a knowledge of Hebrew and
Greek may be a deterrent for some.

Best wishes,

Stephen Hodge