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Focuses on the controversy among Nepali language specialists over the sources of lexical borrowing in Nepali. Lexical items currently are borrowed from both English and Sanskrit, and also Hindi/Urdu, Persian and Arabic. After reviewing Nepali history and language, the question of borrowing from different sources within different domains of language use is examined. (13 references) (JL)

Highlights points of convergence between the Sanskrit citrakavyas and pattern poetry. (FL)

Reviews the history of classical linguistic studies in the United States. Cites many of the important American classicists from the nineteenth century to the present. Also gives the history of some scholarly organizations, including the Linguistic Society of America and the American Philological Association. (LMO)

The paper is a review of ancient Sanskrit literature for information on the origin and development of speech and language, speech production, normality of speech and language, and disorders of speech and language and their treatment. (DB)

Analysis of Sanskrit sentences as spoken by 10 Sanskrit speakers supports grammarians' theory on the duration of short, long, and prolated vowel sounds, but does not provide support for the theory that all consonants are of equal duration. (Author/JDD)

This issue of "Mahfil" is devoted to Sanskrit literature and contains a note on Sanskrit pronunciation and selections of Sanskrit literature. It also contains articles analyzing and discussing various aspects of the literature, including "Sanskrit Rhetoric and Poetic,""The Creative Role of the Goddess Vac in the 'Rgveda,'""Vedic and Epic Translations,""Myth as Literature in Ancient India: The Saga of Sukracarya,""Obscenity in Sanskrit Literature,""Sanskrit Literary Forms and Oriya Literature," and "Sanskrit Compositions in Carnatic Music." Many of the literary analyses also contain examples of the literature. (JM)

Discusses English words of Sanskrit origin in categories including standard English, Indian religion and philosophy, gods and goddesses, castes, trees, coins and weights, titles, and miscellaneous words referring to Indian culture. All derivations are from the American Heritage Dictionary. (BK)

Copyright of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, & the Middle East is the property of Duke University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Superstratum languages often become substratum languages after military defeats. This was the case with Middle Persian in the Islamic Empire. There were different phases of interference between Middle Persian and Arabic. For example, Middle Persian terms, especially in administration and technology, were borrowed into Arabic. Later, in the first decades of Abbasid rule, a new scientific terminology was developed in Arabic based on translations of Sanskrit and Middle Persian texts in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. Besides that, some scientific concepts of Chinese origin were received too. Most of these early Arabic scientific texts are lost, having been replaced later in the 3rd/9th century by translations of Greek scientific works. However, many fragments of them are preserved in secondary tradition, and such materials have been only partially studied. This paper will discuss cases of Arabic borrowings, including calques and loanwords from Sanskrit and Middle Persian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walenty Skorochód-Majewski (1764-1835) was the author of the first descriptions of Sanskrit grammar in Polish. Being a self-taught amateur, he reported on the explosion of interest in the Sanskrit grammatical tradition in Europe at the time both in his introductory dissertation O Słowianach i ich pobratymcach (1816) and in his systematic description Grammatyka mowy starożytnych Skuthow (1828). Not only did he almost on a regular basis present grammatical concepts from India, unknown to Polish until then, but he also struggled to understand their descriptions in languages less familiar to him, such as English. In the light of the material collected for the Historical Dictionary of Grammatical Terms Online project, it can be concluded that it was Skorochód-Majewski who was the first to use in written Polish the terms guna, vridhi or sundhi, which soon became extremely popular among linguists worldwide. The article looks into how Majewski has dealt with these specific terms, drawing on a variety of sources, and even sometimes critically contrasting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the centuries, Jaina authors actively engaged in producing their own versions of stories that were told in sources such as the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, and the purāṇas. These authors self-consciously present themselves as correcting preceding narratives that they do not accept as credible. However, the question arises: what criteria determine the credibility of one version over another? This paper offers one possible answer as it appears in the Investigation of Dharma (Dharmaparīkṣā), a Jaina narrative that has been retold repeatedly in different languages throughout the second millennium. By examining its earliest available retellings—in Apabhramsha (988 CE) and Sanskrit (1014 CE)—I argue that this narrative traces the credibility of stories to the ideas of (1) coherence across textual boundaries and (2) correspondence with real-life experience. In this paper, I trace how these notions manifest in the Investigation and analyze the narrative's mechanism for training its audience to evaluate for themselves the credibility of stories. Through this analysis, the paper offers a fresh perspective on the motivations of premodern South Asian authors to retell existing narratives and sheds light on the reading practices they expect from their audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several of the synthetic denominative stems known in the earliest Vedic texts correspond to synonymous analytic constructions employing the verbs √kr̥ 'make, do' and √dhā 'place'. The relative frequencies of homologous synthetic and analytic expressions may follow several diachronic trajectories, of which two are common: (1) the denominative dominates in the older layers of the texts; or (2) analytic tokens outnumber denominatives in the same chronological setting. The facts of distribution motivate the argument that certain denominatives (those of the first type) belong to a high register in the inherited lexicon while others (of the second type) are innovative formations recently incorporated into priestly poetic vocabulary. It is further proposed that (1) the synchronic functional range of the root √kr̥ fostered a great deal of surface ambiguity and (2) the denominatives following the second distribution trajectory are neologisms consciously coined in the context of this ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The auxiliary ās- 'sit' is one of a set of verbs that forms iterative-continuative periphrases in Sanskrit, but it has hardly been studied. While modern-day Sanskrit grammars acknowledge its presence, a comprehensive investigation into its usage is lacking. Given the lack of studies on the ās- periphrasis, this paper explores the verbal construction constituted of the root ās- 'sit' plus participle or gerund from Early Vedic to Epic Sanskrit, also offering a brief comparison with vas- 'dwell, live'. A few passages from Vedic prose show vas- in combination with participles and gerunds in a similar use of that with ās-, but these contexts have never been extensively studied in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steever (1988. The serial verb formation in the Dravidian languages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass) introduced to South Asian linguistics the notion "Serial Verb" – a Dravidian construction in which two morphologically finite verbs agree in person and number features in the same sentence. I show that similar "double-finite" structures are found in Sanskrit/Indo-Aryan, although details differ. One double-finite construction, inherited from Proto-Indo-European, does not seem to have continued in the post-Vedic language, but others do, and similar structures occur in Modern Indo-Aryan languages. While the historical developments are relatively clear for early Indo-Aryan, from Vedic down to Pāli, there are questions about whether the double-finite constructions of Modern Indo-Aryan are inherited , since comparable structures have not been noted in late Middle Indo-Aryan Apabhraṁśa, the near-ancestor of (peninsular) Modern Indo-Aryan. In the conclusion I discuss alternatives to Modern Indo-Aryan inheritance, including areal and typological factors and the proposal by Milizia (2018. Sul presente neoindoarico a doppio verbo finito. Atti del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese 12(n.s.). 93–111) that the perhaps most widespread Modern Indo-Aryan double-finite construction results from analogical developments. (Unfortunately, the latter proposal does not account for the other Modern Indo-Aryan double-finite constructions.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional Buddhist Sanskrit term vijñāna cannot be given the meaning "consciousness" in accordance with the grammatical rules of Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī. In Vedic texts the traditional Sanskrit terms citta and manas refer to the eternal cognitive entities, which were also popular in some Indian Prakrit languages at the time of Buddha. It seems possible that Buddha himself created the new Prakrit term to denote the impermanent cognitive apparatus, which is produced by object and sensory organ. The sound of the Prakrit term is recorded and written as vijñāna with Sanskrit letters. In the case of a hypothetical debate between a Buddhist and a Brahmanist, the Brahmanist would insist on strictly following Sanskrit Grammar in order to interpret the Sanskrit word vijñāna. Discrepancies arising from the non-native usage of this term would lead to a great many mistakes and cause debates to become impossible. Vasubandhu, therefore, introduced a new Sanskrit term vijñapti to refer to consciousness and remedy this confusion. Through the analysis presented in Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī, we find that the root of vijñapti is not jñā as some scholars have said, but jñap. Although vijñapti looks like a substantive thing, it is just a momentary aggregation of cognitive efficacies (vyāpṛti) without any ontic base. Therefore, the new term vijñapti can not only be translated as consciousness, but it is also in conformity with the Mahāyāna doctrines of anityatā, niḥsvabhāvatā and śūnyatā well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences / Uluslararasi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

India is a huge, multifaceted nation with an abundance of folktales and folk literature. Any society can have folk literature as an integral component of its language and culture. Folk literature, sometimes referred to as oral tradition or folklore, is the customary knowledge and beliefs of civilizations without written language. It is transmitted orally and includes stories in prose and poetry, poems, songs, dramas, ceremonies, proverbs, riddles, and other such things, just like written literature. It has been produced by almost every recognised persons, both historically and currently. First and foremost, translations from this era are mostly credited with enabling vernaculars to advance towards literary languages. Furthermore, it is said that translations made it possible for the common languages to successfully challenge Sanskrit's dominance. Second, the scholars associated with the "Bhakti" movement assert that translations were made into other languages of the "high texts," which were previously only accessible in Sanskrit. This allowed women and other marginalised groups in society, who had previously been excluded from these texts, to directly access divine teachings in their native tongues. Since folktales have a strong hold on the public imagination and because folk heroes are frequently worshipped in villages, the majority of folk tales are produced, disseminated, and preserved in vernacular languages. This essay discusses several facets of Indian folk literature and how they relate to the growth of regional vernacular writing in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This publication presents the first Ukrainian translation of the fourteenth chapter of the first section of the fundamental Sanskrit treatise on Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) Charaka Samhita. (For previous chapters, see 2017 issues of The World of the Orient and No. 2 for this year.) As it exists today, this text is thought to have arisen in the 1st century CE. The translation is of great importance for acquaintance of the Ukrainian readers with medical conceptions and life of Ancient India. The fourteenth chapter is devoted to such an Ayurvedic procedure as fomentation (svedana, from Sanskrit sveda or sweat), which means various types of therapeutic warming: warming the whole body or its individual parts; dry heat, steam heat, hot tub; warming up with or without preliminary anointing а patient's body with oil. At the beginning of the chapter, the usefulness of fomentation is justified by an analogy "Even dry poles bend by means of oleation and fomentation, then how living human beings [can not be benefited]?" The chapter insists on coordinating a power of fomentation with a season and a patient's condition. Indications and contraindications for fomentation are listed. Instructions on behavior before, during, and after a fomentation are given. A list of medicine added to the boiling water (to generate steam) is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This self-reflective essay explores the wider implications of the BJP's inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, from the perspective of a scholar of Sanskrit and classical Indian religions. What questions does it raise about our relationship with history, heritage, decolonization and the politics of memory? How can one decolonize oneself and society by reclaiming tradition and heritage, without political agendas and misinterpretations of the past? The article argues for a critical, non-passive, creative, reclamation of tradition for the formation of a truly free decolonized political consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In interwar Poland, academic Oriental studies developed in three distinct centres, although the Orientalist community remained decentralized. In Vilnius, several scholars in this field were active and conducted both research and instruction of Oriental languages. Among them were Poles, Jews, Karaites and Tatars. Professionally, they were also diverse, including linguists, biblical scholars, Palestinologists, museologists, lecturers, and rabbis. Their academic pursuits encompassed religious studies, Semitic studies (with a focus on Hebrew), Ancient Eastern philology, Sanskrit, Ottoman Turkish studies, Turkish dialectology, Karaim studies, and ethnographic studies of the Polish Orient. In terms of education, they were involved in both school and university instruction, teaching Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, and Karaim. Noteworthy figures among these scholars in Vilnius included: Antoni Cichoński, Zofia Dubińska, Aleksander Dubiński, Dawid Neiger, Paweł Nowicki, Jan Otrębski, Seraja Szapszał, Jakub Szynkiewicz, Franciszek Tyczkowski, Bolesław Wilanowski, Ali Ismaił Woronowicz, Ananiasz Zajączkowski, and Włodzimierz Zajączkowski, along with Władysław Zimnicki. However, the research on Jewish, Tatar (Quranic) and Karaim education in Vilnius remains scant. Beyond scholarly and pedagogical pursuits, Orientalist activities in Vilnius extended to numerous institutions, including the Jewish Library, the Karaim and Tatar Museum, and various associations (including the Polish Oriental Society). Moreover, the city served as a hub for many periodicals, such as "Myśl Karaimska," "Rocznik Tatarski," "Życie Tatarskie," as well as many Jewish magazines. Vilnius also hosted two Congresses of Polish Orientalists (in 1932 and 1937). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This publication presents the first Ukrainian translation of the thirteenth chapter of the first part of the fundamental Sanskrit treatise on Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) Charaka Samhita. (For previous chapters, see 2017 issues of The World of the Orient). As it exists today, this text is thought to have arisen in the 1st century CE. The translation is of great importance for acquaintance of the Ukrainian readers not only with medical conceptions and life of Ancient India, but also with respective religious and philosophical doctrines. The subject of the thirteenth chapter is such Ayurvedic procedure as snehana or oleation, which means anointing the body with fatty substances or taking them orally. Both oils and animal fats are used and both are applied in their pure form or with vegetable or mineral additives. The chapter begins with questions asked by the student Agnivesha to the teacher Atreya. It is noteworthy that the last was sitting with adepts of Sankhya or one of the six "orthodox schools of Indian philosophy". This is evidence of respect of the author (or ancient editors) of Charaka Sam- hita for this branch of ancient Indian science. Agnivesha's questions actually form the scheme of the chapter. The chapter outlines indications and contraindications for oleation therapy and lists substances for oleation. A description of their properties and seasonal indications for different types of unctuous substances and contra-indications is given. Significant attention is paid to the dosage and the regimen that a patient may follow. Side reactions of oleation are named and their managements are advised. It is noted that oleation should precede fomentation therapy to which the next chapter is devoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges the alleged parallel between Latin queo ‘I can’ and Sanskrit yā- ‘to be possible’. Though sharing some similarities (e.g., motion as a source domain, negative polarity contexts), they exhibit significant differences. Queo is personally constructed and typically conveys participant-related possibility, while yā-constructions are linked to agent demotion. The passive meaning of yā- in personal constructions and its possible connection to modality are also briefly addressed.

In the 20th century, Comparative Literature and Cognitive Poetics encountered classical Indian literary theory, based on a systematic classification of the states of mind that manifest themselves as the aesthetic experience of an emotion (rasa) in the viewer or listener; this emotion is actualized through the suggestiveness (dhvani) of the text. This paper presents a critical analysis of some recent approaches to ancient Sanskrit Poetics, considering its historical development. It offers various models for analyzing of the emotions triggered by a literary work and their relationship to the text and its aesthetic enjoyment, such as some postulates of Cognitive Poetics. Intercultural dialogue will be fruitful if if literary criticism is approached through a contextualized understanding of respective cultural traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twenties of the last century, the German Indologist F. O. Schrader had noted that in some medieval commentaries on the Bhagavadgītā, whose authors came from Kashmir, the verses differed from its "canonical" version, based on the text of Śaṅkara's commentary. Having assumed that there was a special "recension" of this book in Kashmir and discovered later the incomplete birch bark manuscript (in śāradā script) of the "Kashmir Recension", he reconstructed on the basis of this manuscript supplemented by other sources, and published The Kashmir Recension of the Bhagavadgita (in 1930). The Kashmir Recension has slightly more than 700 verses of the "canonical" version of the Bhagavadgītā. Also, many verses in the two versions have certain differences (which however usually does not lead to a radical change in meaning). This publication for the first time offers the Ukrainian translation of the "additional" (absent in the critical edition) verses of the "Kashmir Recension" of the Bhagavadgītā. The introductory article acquaints reader with the history of the "Kashmir Recension" and the controversy surrounding it. In particular, the arguments of the opponents of F. O. Schrader are presented; they do not agree with his opinion (based on assertions of some manuscripts of the Mahābhārata according to which the Bhagavadgītā allegedly contains 745 verses) that the text published by him is older than the "canonical" version. The notes draw parallels between the "additional" verses and the classical text and explain some terms and realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Central Tibeto-Burman (also known as Kuki-Chin) forms a group of fifty languages spoken in the border area of Bangladesh, India and Burma. Due to their geographic distribution, speakers of South Central (SC) languages are in close contact with the superstrate languages, Bangla, Hindi and Burmese. The inevitable consequence of this longstanding contact on lesser-known languages of this region is understudied, especially structural diffusions. This paper presents a detailed discussion on relative-correlative (RC-CRC) construction in Hyow, a Southeastern SC language spoken by approximately four thousand people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, where they are in close contact with Bangla and Marma (a dialect of Burmese). This empirical study demonstrates how RC-CRC construction in Hyow is structurally and distributionally similar to those in IA languages, taking a critical look at the existing literature on IA languages and using data therein for a comparative study. In doing so, this paper provides examples from Bangla, Hindi and Sanskrit, and refutes some of the observations made in previous scholarly works. This paper also explores how they might have developed in Hyow, which otherwise uses a nominalization as native strategy for forming relative clauses. Even though most part of this paper discusses the RC-CRC constructions in Hyow as a consequence of language contact, this paper presents new insights on RC-CRC constructions in Bangla as well comparing to other IA languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]