Sanskrit Nakas Gothic Nehw s

Author(s): Vittore Pisani
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

Page 1

Sanskrit Nāka-s : Gothic Nēhw-s
VITTORE PISANI
Nhis important review of Heinrich Lüder's Varuna (' Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft' 101, 1951, p. 407 ff.) Paul Thieme defines the names of the parts of the sky in Rgveda (p. 412) : rocana-m means, according to him, the unvisible part, nā'ka-s the part that is visible as the firmament; only later on this word ends by indicating the sky in general. In a foot-note (4) Thieme suggests that nå'ka- may be formed, like úpaka- and ápäka-, from a nã which exists no more in Sanskrit but is preserved in Slav na 'on' (from *no, as shown by its Lithuanian correspondence nuo). His further comparison with Greek nôton back'is surely wrong; but the idea that nā'ka- may be formed like úpäka- ápäka- (cp. further úpāñc-, ápāñc- etc.; s. also my paper : Latino provincia, etc., Rendiconti dell'Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere' LXXIV, 1940, p. 148 ff.) is doubtless an illuminating one. Manfred Mayrhofer, A Concise Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary II, 1963, p. 149 mentions further etymologies that deserve no attention.
Now, if Thieme's etymology is right, then we must consider nāóka- as originally an adjective : na'ka-, like úpaka- 'approximate', ápäka- distant', may have indicated, to judge from Slavna and according to the significance of na'ka- 'firmament' as opposed to rócana-, what is situated on something or near to something. And one cannot avoid to compare it with Gothic nēhw-s (German nahe, cld English néah, Engl. nigh), of which Sigmund Feist, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache, 3d ed. 1939, p. 373 rightly says that all extant