________________ 186 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME comparisons are not reliable. Formally Skt. na'ka- and Goth. nehwacorrespond exactly to each other, as descendants from an Indo-European *nekwo-. It is possible that a formation of *no or better of I.-E. *ne, ne in apophony with it, is contained also in Sanskrit nediyan nedisthas, Avestan nazdyo adv. nazdista- (on which s. Mayrhofer, op. cit. p. 179), further in Oscan-Umbrian nessimo-, Old Irish nessam (cp. my Lingue dell' Italia antica, 2d ed. 1964, p. 138), etc. We might now ask : has this Indo-European adjective *nekwoacquired his meaning 'firmament, sky' at first in Rgveda? Or is it possible that this meaning did arise already in some Indo-European dialects? It is impossible to answer unhesitatingly this question; anyhow I would like to remember that Tokharian has a word, A nkat, B nakte which means 'god' and could be a derivation by suffix-to- from *nekwo-: the palatalisation to be seen in n indicates that after the original n there was originally a front vowel, e or e. In this case, nkat/ nakte would have meant originally celestial, inhabitant of the firmament', as a cast of *deiwo- (Sanskrit deva-s, Latin divus deus, Lithuanian dievas, etc.), which is a derivation of *dyew- (Sanskrit dyaus Greek Zeus, Latin dies etc.) 'sky, heaven'. . 1 TUISICISM I LOVE HEARDLARIN Ban 09 py Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
