Some Topics in the Development of OIA MIA NIA

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 94

2. DERIVATIONAL (1) THE NOMINAL SUFFIX OȚA- IN SANSKRIT
1. Assumption of a Suffix -oțaDebrunner sets upi a Sanskrit nominal suffix -ota- on the basis of the words śarkota - (der. śārkota-) (AV.) 'scorpion or 'serpent'? and karkota-, karkotaka- 'name of a Nāga'. Besides śarkóta- we have sárku- (AV.) 'name of an evil demon' and besides karkota- we have karka- (lex.) 'crab', 'the sign cancer'. Obviously the evidence is very slender and suspect. As karkais unattested and kárkata- is not attested frequently in early literature, their usually assumed connexion with kárkinos, Latin cancer is doubted by Mayrhofer. Consequently we would have no ground left to analyse karkota- as karka- + -ota- There remains then only sarkota-, which (as well as sárku-) being isolated and obscure, we have no means to analyse them too with any degree of certainty.
It seems probable that karka- came to be created through reinterpreting karkața- under the analogical influence from L.ate Middle Indo-Aryan. We have quite a parallel case in the pair markata- and marka- ‘ape'. marka-'ape' is attested at Bhāgavata Purāņa, 10, 8, 29 c;
markän bhokşyan vibhajati sacen nätti bhāndam bhinatti.
Here describing the pranks of child Krsņa, it is said that he was habitually stealing curds and milk from the houses of the gopis, himself eating and if not, freely distributing them among the monkeys. This is the only recorded occurrence of
1. Debrunner, A., Altindische Grammatik, II. 2, 1954, 353. For Other
-la-suffixes (-ata-, -ita-, uta-, -eta-) see ibid., 410.
Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B., Vedic Index s.v. śarkota-. 3. Mayrhofer, M., Kurzgefastes Ety. Worterbuch des Altindischen,
1956 etc., s.v. karkatah. Turner agrees with this view : A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages, 1963, s.v. karkata'.