Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 325

Some Etymologies in Manusmộti
ETYMOLOGY is one of the potent means of explanation with Indian writers and very often they make the etymology of a word serve the function of an explanation. This inordinate desire to etymologise a word is very old and must have started from the days of the Brāhmaṇas which offer a number of such explanations of words, many of which are, however, quite fanciful. That this school of the etymologists grew very rapidly is evident from the remarks of Yāska about his predecessors and his own contributions in the field of etymology. In all such efforts, these writers were helped by the extraordinary transparency of the Sanskrit language and whenever the source of the word could be ascertained by reference to the material available in the language itself, the Indian school of etymologists and following them the grammarians have hit. upon the correct origin of the word. But their ignorance of any of the cognate languages made them impossible to guess the correct source of so many words which have lost all connection with other words of the language or available roots and in all such cases they have satisfied themselves and their craving for etymology by a fanciful process of word-analysis in which they attempted to find out the known roots of the language. That such attempts were made quite early is apparent from the remarks of Yaska and sākatāyana's analysis of the word satya given by him. This was the result of the formulation of the extreme view that all nouns must come from verbs or roots, a view which modern linguistics has proved to be far from true.
The Dharmaśāstra attributed to Manu has indulged in a number of etymological explanations of a few words in course of discussing law proper, which are interesting both as regards their fanciful nature and the use made of them by the writer. Thus there are seven such cases which may be discussed in detail in order to ascertain their real origin and in what light the medieval commentators took them.