Re: [INDOLOGY] Translation of yaṣṭihastaya

Walter Slaje slaje at kabelmail.de
Tue Nov 8 09:20:30 UTC 2016


I am very sorry, but I don't quite understand under what entry of yaṣṭi
Boehtlingk would indicate any such meanings as sacrifice or sacrificing?
He carefully distinguishes yaṣṭi (1) from yaṣṭi (2). He indicates meanings
for yaṣṭi (1) (the flagstaff semantics), but circumspectively avoids to
assign a meaning to yaṣṭi (2), as he considers the latter a mere (scribal
or printing or transmissional) error for iṣṭi. As a wrong word formation /
wrong reading, it is not supposed to connote a reliable meaning. Therefore
he avoided to give one.

Boethlingk deliberately removed almost all textual references from his
second edition with a view to saving space for more entries as a result of
adapting it to the then current state of research. This is why the second
edition contains more lemmata and additional meanings as compared to the
first one. The first one, on the other hand, is packed with textual
references.

Regards,
WS



2016-11-08 8:05 GMT+01:00 Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com>:

>
> Apologies, I should have been more careful and used the gerund form
> *sacrificing* instead of *sacrifice *in my mail. Not that it matters, but
> is there a big difference between the two? Monier-Williams seems to use
> both synomously, as he lists both forms in the same meaning under इष्टि.
> [p= 169,3] [L=29650] f. sacrificing , sacrifice
>
> So Böhtlingk did remove the reference to A 3.3.110 in the second edition,
> and the Monier-Williams translation of the original meaning persists even
> in the 2008 revision! But why did Böhtlingk still have a meaning for
> *yaṣṭi* as *nom. act. von *(*nomen abstractum* from?) *yaj*, instead of
> removing the meaning altogether if he was sure that the reading was
> erroneous? What does this mean?
>
>
> On 8 November 2016 at 11:39, Walter Slaje <slaje at kabelmail.de> wrote:
>
>> I could not trace the meaning „sacrifice“ anywhere in Boethlingk. He
>> himself presumed that *yaṣṭi* might be an error for the correct word
>> formation *iṣṭi* (in the text available to him at the time). Later, in
>> his second Petrograde Dictionary (pw) he explicitly points to the
>> erroneous reading of *yaṣṭi *by stating "richtig" ("correct") is *iṣṭi*.
>>
>>
>>
>> PW
>>
>> 2. *yaṣṭi* f.  nom. act. von 1. *yaj*  P. 3, 3, 110, Sch.  wohl fehlerhaft
>> für *iṣṭi*.
>>
>>
>>
>> (MW’s translation)
>>
>> sacrificing Pāṇ.  3-3, 110 Sch. (prob. w.r. for iṣṭi).
>>
>>
>>
>> (pw)
>>
>> 2. *yaṣṭi*  f. Nom. act. von 1. *yaj*. Richtig *iṣṭi*.
>>
>>
>>
>> *yaṣṭi *in the meaning of sacrifice was however recorded by Edgerton in
>> Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit usage:
>>
>> (Edgerton)
>>
>> 1. *yaṣṭi* f. sacrifice. Mvu iii.145.20; (= Skt *iṣṭi*)
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> WS
>>
>>
>>
>> -----------------------------
>> Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
>> Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
>> D-99425 Weimar
>> Deutschland
>>
>>
>> 2016-11-08 2:09 GMT+01:00 Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> The *Viśvaprakāśa* lists one of the meanings of *yaṣṭi* as flagstaff (
>>> *dhvajadaṇḍa*, as opposed to a simple staff or *daṇḍa*).
>>> *yaṣṭirhāralatāśastrabhedayordhvajadaṇḍake* (*ṭadvikam*, verse 23)
>>>
>>> Unless a usage or *Kośa* citation can be traced, the meaning of
>>> “sacrifice” given by Böhtlingk for the word *yaṣṭi *needs to be taken
>>> with a grain of salt. The Nyāsa, a commentary on the Kāśikā, has the
>>> example as *kāmiṣṭim* and not *kāṃ yaṣṭiṃ *(see attached) under A
>>> 3.3.110. For the “sacrifice” meaning, one needs a suffix in *bhāva. ktin
>>> *is such a suffix, but due to A 6.1.15 (*vacisvapiyajādīnāṃ kiti*),
>>> *yaj* + *ktin *will result in *iṣṭi*. It is possible that there was a
>>> scribal error or an error on part of Böhtlingk which led to *kāmiṣṭim* being
>>> mistaken as *kāṃ yaṣṭiṃ *in the commentary he referred to.
>>>
>>> The *Śabdakalpadruma* has this to say on the derivation of *yaṣṭi*:
>>> *yaj* + *bāhulakāt tiḥ*, *iti uṇādivṛttau ujjvaladattaḥ* (4.179). This
>>> makes sense, as with *tiḥ* the *samprasāraṇa* by A 6.1.15 would not
>>> take place.
>>>
>>> On 29 October 2016 at 23:35, Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: Corinna Wessels-Mevissen <corinnawessels at yahoo.de>
>>>> Date: Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 12:31 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Translation of yaṣṭihastaya
>>>> To: Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hello Harry Spier,
>>>>
>>>> I did my PhD on the early iconography of the aṣṭadikpālas (book is
>>>> available on Academia: https://www.academia.edu/30295
>>>> 35/The_Gods_of_the_Directions_in_Ancient_India_Origin_and_Ea
>>>> rly_Development_in_Art_and_Literature_until_c._1000_A.D._), and Vāyu
>>>> is very often seen as holding a flagstaff. This is in fact his most
>>>> prominent attribute. As far as I remember, *yaṣṭi* was not mentioned
>>>> in those texts, but only dhvaja or patākā, and the respective images show
>>>> the god with a banner – mostly with the flag portion being a long streamer.
>>>>
>>>> Hope this helps somehow.
>>>>
>>>> Corinna Wessels-Mevissen
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *Von:* Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com>
>>>> *An:* Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
>>>> *Gesendet:* 2:22 Samstag, 29.Oktober 2016
>>>> *Betreff:* [INDOLOGY] Translation of yaṣṭihastaya
>>>>
>>>> Dear list members:
>>>>
>>>> A gāyatrī mantra mantra to Vāyu is:
>>>> sarvaprāṇāya vidmahe
>>>> yaṣṭihastāya dhīmahi
>>>> tan no vāyuḥ pracodayāt
>>>> I've seen a translation of yaṣṭihastāya as "holding the mace" but are
>>>> statues or pictoral representations of Vāyu, and if so  with a mace?
>>>> but Monier-Williams also  has a meaning of yaṣṭi as "sacrificing" which
>>>> he says comes from a commentator on Panini 3-3-110 .
>>>>  By any chance could someone point out the commentator and point me to
>>>> the passage MW refers to.
>>>> Also based on that definition of yaṣṭi does a translation of
>>>> yaṣṭihastāya as "to the one who sacrifices with his hands" make sense.
>>>> refering to the wind fanning the flames of the sacrifice.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Harry Spier
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Nityānanda Miśra
>>> http://nmisra.googlepages.com
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Nityānanda Miśra
> http://nmisra.googlepages.com
>
>


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