[INDOLOGY] Texts and bodily metaphors

[Will Sweetman]

Dear all

I'm working on some early European accounts of the Vedas including what I
think is the very first reference to the Vedas in a European text. This was
published in Couto's *Da Asia,* but is in fact taken from another work
written by an Augustinian friar Agostinho de Azevedo in 1603. Azevedo (in
my translation) says that the Brahmins:

"have many books in their Latin, which they call Geredão which contain
everything they are to believe, and all the ceremonies they are to perform.
These books are divided into bodies [corpos], limbs [membros] and joints
[articulos], whose originals are those they call Veados, which are divided
into four parts, and these further into fifty-two parts in the following
manner: six which they call Xastra, which are the bodies, eighteen which
they call Purana, which are the limbs, twenty-eight called Agamon which are
the joints."

This formulation, with variations, is repeated in many subsequent European
sources. The terms for the divisions (corpos,membros, articulos), which are
not so often repeated, have usually been translated more literally as
bodies, members and articles (or articulations).

I'm curious as to whether anyone is aware of an Indian source which uses
these metaphors. I'm aware, of course of the Vedāṇgas, but I think the six
here are clearly meant to be the śāstras/darśanas. This may indicate some
muddling—or sheer invention—on Azevedo's part, but in other instances I've
found it best to look first for an Indian source or idea an early European
writer may be following rather than immediately assuming error or
invention, so I'd welcome any leads and/or comments on translating membros
as limbs and articulos as joints. "Articles" for the latter seems to me to
be a particularly unilluminating translation.

Best

Will


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20150811/9e1e02ed/attachment.htm>