[INDOLOGY] In search of an emendation

[Buchholz, Jonas]

Dear colleagues,

my colleague Aneesh Raghavan and I are working on an unpublished Sanskrit māhātmya of Kanchipuram and we have encountered a textual problem that we have so far not been able to solve. The passage in question is part of the origin story of the Palar river, which is said to have originated from the streams of milk that the cow Kāmadhenu emitted after the sage Vasiṣṭha had created a calf for her. It reads as follows:

prı̄tikaṇṭakitair aṅgaiḥ prasnutastanamaṇḍalā |
†ukṣāmabhis (v.l.: akṣāmabhis)† tam ālokya mahaughaiḥ pāyasair nijaiḥ |
ullaṅghitobhayataṭām udapādayad āpagām |

(The subject is the cow; “tam” refers to “vatsam”, i.e. the calf.)

Here, the word “ukṣāmabhiḥ” does not seem to make sense, nor does the variant reading “akṣāmabhiḥ”. However, we cannot think of a meaningful emendation. If any of the members of this list have an idea of how to make sense of this passage, or how the problematic reading could be emended, we would be most grateful!

Best wishes,
Jonas Buchholz

                                                           ____                _____
Dr. Jonas Buchholz
Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Project “Hindu Temple Legends in South India”

Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstr. 2 | Building 4400 | Room 004
69115 Heidelberg, Germany

P:  +49 (0)6221 54 4095
E:  jonas.buchholz at hadw-bw.de<mailto:jonas.buchholz at hadw-bw.de>
W: https://www.hadw-bw.de/htl

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