Dear Herman Tieken,

I don't know if Ahsoka is related to Aśoka but there is a long history of Sanskrit and related influence in Star Wars. I recell reading that Yoda takes his name from yoddhṛ. The Duel of the Fates song from Episode 1 has its chorus sung in (mangled) Sanskrit. Additionally, Tibetan and Kalmyk were supposedly the inspiration, in part, of the language of the Ewoks.

With my best wishes,
Charles

Prof. Dr. Charles DiSimone
Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies
Department of Languages and Cultures
Ghent University


On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 9:44 AM Tieken, H.J.H. (Herman) via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear List members,

I saw announced a sequel to Star Wars which features a character called Ahsoka. I am curious to know if this is a mangled version of Aśoka, via Ashoka (in Dutch papers the aspiration in the name Gandhi is often misplaced: Ghandi).

with kind regards, Herman


Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127

The Aśoka Inscriptions: Analysing a corpus, New Delhi: Primus Books, 2023.



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