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Notes and News
PROF. THIEME'S ETYMOLOGY OF SKT. asi AND ITS BEARING ON THE
IRON-AGE IN INDIA
The word así (m.) is attested in the Sanskrit literature since the Rovecha. Its meaning, there, is knife' used for cutting the slaughtered animals. As 'sword', a weapon used in battles, así appears since the Atharvaveda.
What was this gvedic asi 'knife' made of ?
Since the word ayas accurs in the Rgveda and since it is usually taken to mean copper (or bronze) one inference could be that the gvedic así was made of copper.
But this inference would prove wrong if Prof. Thieme's suggestion (Thieme. 1958) regarding the etymology of the word así is found to be correct.'.
We have in Sanskrit correspondences like hárita 'yellow': harit hári 'yellow' róhita 'red': rohit, röhi 'red' Similarly in Greek álphito - "barley meal': álphit 'barley meal' (lit. 'the white one')
Such correspondences make the following correspondence for Sanskrit a possibility :
Skt. ásita 'black': *asit, *asi 'black'
This means that for Sanskrit we assume an adjective * asi which is not attested.
In Greek we have a word ásis f. 'river mud'. If we assume an unattested existence of a Sanskrit a djective *asi 'black' it is possible for us to compare
Sk. *asi (adj.) 'black': Gk, ásis - (Fem.) 'river mud'.
Phonetically this correspondence becomes likely only it we assume that the two words Skt. *asi and Gk. ásis are derived from IE *i which, as an adjective, would have the meaning 'black'. We have to assume that in Greek the Indo-European adjective 'black' was nominalized to mean 'river mud'.
In Latin we have the word 'ēnsis' m. sword'. Earlier it was not possible to relate Sk. así (iron) sword, and Lat. ēnsis (iron) sword' because, although there
Madhu Vidyā/143
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