A Query re the development of garbha

[Asko Parpola]

Sanskrit kaThina 'hard, firm, stiff' indeed goes back to the Dravidian  
root *kaNTTu (whence Tamil kaTTu etc.) 'to harden, consolidate,  
congeal, coagulate, swell (as boil or tumour)', derivatives including  
i.a. Tamil kaTTi 'clod, lump, concretion, anything hardened,  
coagulated, boil, abscess, tumour, enlarged spleen, foetus'. Cognates  
in other languages are not recorded as having the meaning 'foetus',  
but the basic meaning is  anything becoming hard or solid like milk  
coagulating into solid lumps of butter etc.  The etymon is distributed  
widely in the Dravidian languages, all main branches being  
represented. See T. Burrow & M. B. Emeneau, A Dravidian etymological  
dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984, no. 1148 on  
pages 108-109.

With best regards, Asko Parpola


Quoting "Artur Karp" <karp at UW.EDU.PL>:

> Dear List,
>
> According to the Garbhopaniṣat  human embryos "solidify" one month
> after conception, they become kaṭhina. Turner (CDIAL 2650) informs the
> word is used in the Suśrutasaṃhitā and suggests it could be a
> Dravidian borrowing.
>
> [an embryo becomes] māsābhyantare kaṭhinaṃ: "in a month, it hardens".
> A quick check of the Suśrutasaṃhitā text doesn't show any phrase
> combining the two: garbha and kaṭhina.
>
> Are there any other words used to describe this stage of the embryo's
> 'hardening' or 'solidification'? Does also the Hiranyagarbha undergo
> this stage?
>
>
> Thanks in advance, and greetings from snowy Warsaw,
>
>
> Artur Karp
>
> Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Pali (ret.)
> South Asian Studies Dept.
> University of Warsaw
> Poland
>