[INDOLOGY] the medical term jagrī?

[Uskokov, Aleksandar]

Dear Matthew,

Westward, the same Persian word has made way into my native Macedonian through Ottoman Turkish:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%9F%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B5%D1%80

Best wishes
Aleksandar

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________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Sent: Thursday, August 7, 2025 1:46:45 AM
To: David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com>
Cc: Indology List <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] the medical term jagrī?

Dear David,

On a hunch, I looked into Farsi possibilities and found جگر jigar meaning
liver. I think this may solve your mystery.

I thought of this because my current project on the Yuddhajaya-svarodaya revealed a curious connection with west Asian - Aramaic or Arabic - materials.

all best,
Matthew



On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 06:09, David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:On%20Thu,%20Aug%207,%202025%20at%2006:09,%20David%20and%20Nancy%20Reigle%20via%20INDOLOGY%20<<a%20href=>> wrote:
Thank you very much, Dan, Heiner, and Matthew, for your replies. Dan, what the Dharmamitra.org site came up with is truly amazing. I had no idea that such a research tool existed. It greatly helped to explain why the various Tibetan translations of jagr ī and pl īhan are so mutually contradictory.

There is no doubt that jagr ī is the correct word. We have very old palm-leaf manuscripts from near the time the  Kālacakra-tantra and its  Vimalaprabhā commentary were written, circa 1025-1040 CE, and they all agree on this spelling. This word must have been taken from some medical text then available.

The first Tibetan translation made, by Gyijo, as revised shortly thereafter by rMa lotsawa, translated jagr ī as mcher pa, "spleen." The Rwa translation translated jagr ī as skran, "tumor." The 'Bro translation as revised by Shong ston translated jagr ī as dmu chu, "edema," and the Jonang revision of the Shong ston revision left this unchanged. The Sarnath Sanskrit edition of the  Vimalaprabhā put yak ṛt in parentheses after jagr ī, thus thinking it means "liver."

The first Tibetan translation made, by Gyijo, as revised shortly thereafter by rMa lotsawa, translated pl īhan, "spleen," as mchin pa, "liver." The Rwa translation translated pl īhan as mchin nad, "liver disease." The 'Bro translation as revised by Shong ston translated pl īhan as skran, "tumor," and the Jonang revision of the Shong ston revision left this unchanged. None of the four available Tibetan translations took pl īhan as "spleen."

The  Vimalaprabhā commentary has:  jagrī-plīhārṣa-rogān api jalodar ā d ī ni, which seems to gloss jagr ī as jalodara, "edema" (literally, "water belly"). There is no other occurrence of the word  jagrī in the  Kālacakra-tantra or  Vimalaprabhā.

It would be very helpful to find what medical text the term  jagrī was taken from.

With thanks and best regards,

David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.
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