[INDOLOGY] Mudda?

[Suresh Kolichala]

On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 2:04 PM, Martin Gansten <martin.gansten at pbhome.se>wrote:

> Many thanks to all who replied on or off the list to my query on
> mudda/muddā. It seems fairly clear that the word as used in an astrological
> context is indeed an Arabic borrowing, although the compound mudda- or
> muddā-daśā looks a bit tautological ('period-period'). A meaning along the
> lines of 'modified, adapted' would have been more satisfying, as a
> muddā-daśā is in fact a modified sort of daśā; but usage isn't always as
> logical as one might like...


It is not uncommon to find redundant compounds in the Indian languages. In
Hindi, pleonastic compounds such as *tan*-*badan *(body-body), *dhan*-*daulat
*(wealth-wealth) and *nātā*-*riṣta *(relationship-relationship) are very
commonly used. What is interesting about these compounds is that while one
of the words in the compound is native, the other word is usually foreign
(Perso-Arabic).

For a discussion on pleonastic compounds in Dravidian, you may refer to:
Chandrasekaran, Periannan 2011  Pleonastic Compounding: An Ancient
Dravidian Word Structure. *Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies* 5: 1-57. (
http://www.laurasianacademy.com/pleonastic.pdf‎)

Given the abundant evidence of redundant compounds in India, I don't see
anything unusual about the use of the compound *muddā*-*daśā.*

Regards,
Suresh.
Atlanta, GA.


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