[INDOLOGY] the medical term jagrī?

[Matthew Kapstein]

Dear David and all,

I rather doubt that searching for a Persian medical text will be very useful. As Aleksandar and Agnes point out, the word was very widely borrowed, so it may not have come directly from a Persian source. An even in Persian, it seems to have been in use from at least Middle Persian on. The form you find in the KCT, jagrI, moreover, suggests that it was likely not a literary transliteration in this case.

So the question to ask is why, of all the Persian words there are, was the word for liver, it seems, particularly widely diffused? I have no idea, but if you search "Iranian street food" you will find that liver dishes are quite prominent, so I suppose that culinary culture is as good a bet as any.

happy hunting,
Matthew

Matthew T. Kapstein
Professor emeritus
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, Paris

Associate
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein

https://vajrabookshop.com/product/the-life-and-work-of-auleshi/

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716218/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-i/#bookTabs=1

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501771255/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-ii/#bookTabs=1

https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/60949

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On Friday, August 8th, 2025 at 5:49 AM, David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com> wrote:

> A big thank you to all who have replied to my question, all helpful. Since Dominik has kindly verified that the term jagrī does not occur in the etext versions of any classical Āyurvedic text, and that it does not occur in the ninth century MS of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, we may accept Matthew's good suggestion that it comes from the Farsi word jigar. Now the question is: What Persian medical text would have been available in India in the 10th-11th century?
>
> Thank you,
>
> David Reigle
> Colorado, U.S.A.
>
> On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This strikes me as certainly the right answer, Matthew; thank you for finding it! It's really interesting to see a Farsi medical loanword in the tenth-eleventh century KCT. Just to confirm, the term jagrī does not appear in the ninth century MS of the Suśrutasaṃhitā (or in later versions of the text available to me). Nor do I find it in the etext versions of any classical Āyurvedic text.
>> Best,
>> Dominik
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