Dear Arthur & list,

I would rather connect the name Uttaṅka to root TAṄK ‘live in distress’, whence taṅka “a miserable life” and “grief produced from separation from a beloved object” (MW, Apte), which seems to suit very well his character and epic vicissitudes: he lives a miserable life as a lingering brahmacārin, and grieves for the loss of precious objects – the earrings (= talismans of youth?), the ambrosia in different (versions of ) myths belonging to his corpus.

You may wish to have a look at my paper “Uttaṅka’s Quest’’ (available here) offering a comprehensive interpretation of the Uttaṅka corpus as related to the universal mythical theme of the quest for immortality.

Paolo Magnone
Sanskrit Language and Literature
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart - Milan
History of Religions - Hinduism & Buddhism
Theological Faculty of Northern Italy - Milan

Jambudvipa  - Indology and Sanskrit Studies (www.jambudvipa.net)
Academia.edu: http://unicatt.academia.edu/PaoloMagnone

On 07/07/2016 19:40, Artur Karp wrote:

Complete page:

2016-07-07 19:33 GMT+02:00 Artur Karp <karp@uw.edu.pl>:

> wild speculation

Yes, quite wild, if I may say so. 

Takṣaka as 'builder' (Polish 'budowniczy', Czech 'stavitel'), 'construction foreman' sounds reasonable, quite convincing. 

Now, Uttanka? One who 'ruins', 'lays waste' (Turner 5628, tañc – ‘contract, coagulate’)?

See this Mbh episode (Kumbakonam 1906 Ed.), where Uttanka, while trying to enter Taksaka's underground home, violently destroys its entrance. 

Artur Karp

 

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