Dear Patrick—

Thanks! Does this word relate to our term ‘soup’? I would agree with a suggestion that this covers a broad selection of dishes—sort of like what we find in recipe books today: i.e., from a simple broth to stews or ragouts, wet or dry. It would be most informative if the pākaśāstra literature says more.

Cheers,

Joanna

From: Patrick Olivelle [mailto:jpo@uts.cc.utexas.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 2:53 PM
To: Jo
Cc: INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Asoka: Roads and Animals

The term is sūpa -- the expression sūpātthāya (Sk. sūpārthāya) -- for the sake of sūpa (probably more like stew, broth).

On Aug 17, 2011, at 2:34 PM, Jo wrote:

Dear List,

Since I’m dying of curiosity, if I may ask, can someone tell me what is the edict’s term for ‘curry’?

Anthropologists are also skeptical of such number codes and have published about them-- but sorry, no references come to mind.

Thanks

Joanna

" Obliquely, the Ist Rock Edict: "Formerly in the kitchen of king Devanampriya Priyadarśin many hundred thousands of animals (bahūni

prāṇasatasahāsrani) were killed daily for the sake of curry"

[Hultzsch, 1925, p. 2]."

Sounds to me that one ought to apply the rule David Henige gives for premodern figures above ten thousand in his Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate: just as a beginning, knock off the last digit. Henige deals with evidence from a lot of other places besides the Americas, though as best I recall not South Asia.

Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.

Asian Division, Library of Congress

Washington, DC 20540-4810

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.

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