In the Rasendramaṅgala, a tenth-century alchemical work ascribed to Nāgārjuna Siddha, there's a word "challapalla" that seemed to mean something like jhakaṭaka too. "Trouble, fuss, argument." (Or it could be associated with chal "cheat," meaning "deceptions, pretences"?)

(diplomatic transcription sic from MS, ch. 1:)

...
ye vai na jānanti rasendrakarmāṇy
asyāṃ pṛthivyāṃ ca kathaṃ sa vaidyaḥ / 15 /
kiṃ challapallair varavaidyarājaḥ
sa rājate bhūpatim agratas ya
na vetti yo vai rasarājaveśanaṃ
kāruṇyakīrti sa kathaṃ hi lebhe / 16 /
sarvoṣadhānāṃ kriyayopayogataḥ
sa challapallair varayogaratnaiḥ
nāyāti tulyaṃ varayogibhūtale
rasendrayogāc chatakoṭir aṃśataḥ / 17 /

Maybe these words could be compared, linguistically, to English expressions like "argy-bargy."

Best,
Dominik

On 12 May 2011 10:53, Martin Gansten <martin.gansten@pbhome.se> wrote:

Many thanks to Madhav, Patrick and Christophe for providing additional sources for the quotation 'vidyā ha vai ...'. I now have a rather different question:

In a late 16th-century text (the Praśnatantra attributed to Nīlakaṇṭha) I came across the two words jhakaṭaka and bhakaṭaka, which I have been unable to find in any dictionary. A Google search tells me that the former occurs in Samantabhadra's Ratnakaraṇḍaśrāvakācāra, but brings me no closer to a meaning. Any light on these two words would be most appreciated.

Martin