Hello Martin,
even if a concept with an Arabic-language term is hidden behind that, it is by no means certain that the author also understood it in Arabic (unless he was an expert). He could well have associated something Persian with this wording (tājikabhāṣāyāṃ!) and made up a vague meaning, which he then simply translated literally into Sanskrit. Anyway, I would rather understand it as Karmadhāraya, i.e. as a kind of "subtle sweetness". In any case, it is striking that saha-masāda could perhaps conceal a truncated Persian مازه māzah/māze ("taste") as well as a truncated Persian سهل sahl ("soft, easy"). The Persian experts on this list will be able to judge this immediately.
Suppose this were possible, the sentence could come to mean that in the Tajik language, a wording like saha-masāda (~ ~ "soft taste") is the equivalent of sūkṣma-svādu ("subtle sweetness").
So much for my amateurish guesswork.
Best wishes,
Walter
In a Sanskrit text probably originating in 13th-century Gujarat, I
just came across this line:
yas tājikabhāṣāyāṃ sūkṣmasvāduś ca sahamasāda iti |
This is a reference to the Arabic term sahm as-saʿāda (the
Lot of Fortune, an astrological concept). But I am puzzled by the
designation sūkṣmasvādu, which I have never seen before that I can
recall, and certainly not applied to an abstract concept. Does it
ring a bell with anyone? Is it an idiomatic expression that I have
failed to pick up?
Thanks in advance,
Martin Gansten
_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology