Re: [INDOLOGY] gang zag and puruṣa

[Roland Steiner]

In his article

"A propos the Term gtsug lag" (first published in: Tibetan Studies.  
Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for  
Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Vol. 1, ed. by Helmut Krasser, Michael  
Thorsten Much, Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Tauscher, Wien 1997  
{Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,  
Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 256. Band, pp.  
347-354 = Michael Hahn: Schlüssel zum Lehrbuch der klassischen  
tibetischen Schriftsprache und Beiträge zur tibetischen Wortkunde  
[Miscellanea etymologica tibetica I-VI], Marburg 2003 [Indica et  
Tibetica. 10a], pp. 131-143),

Michael Hahn gives the following explanation (Hahn 1997, p. 352 = Hahn  
2003, p. 140):

"gaṅ zag, rendering pudgala 'individual being': literally '(that which  
is first) completed and then decaying'"

Obviously, gaṅ zag is an attempted etymological translation pf  
pudgala/puṃgala (pūr, "to fill, fulfill", gaṅ ba "full" + gal, "to  
drop; to vanish, disappear", zag pa = gzag pa > 'dzag pa "to drop,  
drip, trickle; to flow out").


Best,
Roland Steiner