An astrological manuscript on which I am working includes a
consideration of whether or not a girl is a virgin; the relevant
Sanskrit text runs: eṣā kumārikā kila nirdoṣā vi**umātha
pṛcchāyāṃ, where the ** represent a compound character that I
haven't been able to identify. I would be very grateful for any help
with doing so. (I first read it as -ṣṇ-, but I can't make any sense
of that.)
I am attaching an image of the word in question, which I hope will
make it through; the whole folio is found here (4v, 5 lines from the
bottom):
https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/mscoll390_item1850/data/web/2994_0004_web.jpg
The Arabic original on which this work is based phrases the question
as 'virgin or widow'; the medieval Latin translation is more free: virgo
vel corrupta. But I can't think of a Sanskrit word vi**umā
that would cover either sense, with two (or more) consonants in the
second syllable. It might even be a vernacular word, of which there
are one or two other instances in the text.
The text has been misidentified on the UPenn site (as I have
informed them), but the verse in question does occur in another,
homonymous work (partly based on the present one), of which there
are plenty of MSS and editions. However, the versions I have seen do
not include the unidentified word but rather simple readings like nirdoṣā
jātadoṣā vā or nirdoṣā kiṃ na veti pṛcchāyām. I
believe the lectio difficilior of the present MS might be
preferable, if I could only work it out!
Best wishes,
Martin Gansten