[Buddha-l] Eternalism

[jkirk]

Jayarava--

Thanks for your reply---------Here is what I was thinking about
the conundrum, taking a different route: 

sah,  accdg. to Whitney meaning prevail, could in the context of
the word you were researching, be based on a well-known consonant
shift that occurs a lot in IE words, from s to h,  or vice versa.
Also, p.212 top of page one can find root form sas coming before
sah on the list  (with no sign of 'sa's or any of the other s
phonemes).  

The meaning of sah does seem to suit eternalism, in the sense of
what prevails (never-ending).  

I'm not assuming vat as a possessive but as part of a compound.
So that's why I tried v2. vaa = weave p. 157; one form that
appears is vaataa. Sometimes the length of a vowell also varies
over time, doesn't it? Don't we see this as between some Skt
words? like gaandharva often is written as gandharva, etc.

You wrote, " 'eternalism', with an emphasis on recurrance..."
Weaving can suggest recurrance, as the strands of a weave surface
up and then down, they recur.

Thus, in this case I think a consonantal shift occurred. The leap
root doesn't make sense, to either one of us :) Do my suggestions
make any sense now?

Thanks for starting another fun with roots thread.

Joanna

 

 

 

 



-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com [
<mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com>
mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Jayarava
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 11:35 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Eternalism


Hi Joanna,

Sorry for not replying earlier - I'm a bit scattered at the mo.

I was assuming that -vat was a possessive, and śaś a verbal root
rather than treating the word as another kind of compound.

I don't see any derivatives of sah > śaś or sas > śaś. So you
would have to explain to me how that works. Although MW Dict does
suggest that some (whoever they are) believe it to be sasvat
originally and related to greek "apas".

There is a root śaś (bottom of p.171 of Whitney) that means leap,
but I'm not sure that "possessing a leap" or "leaper" is close
enough to constitute a valid etymology - what would the metaphor
be I wonder. Leaping from one life to the next? Śaśaka is a
rabbit/hare (one who leaps), and śaśin is a name for the moon
where the Indians thought a hare resided.

Perhaps it is simply a single word?

It's funny that it hasn't received more attention as it is that
kind of eternalism that forms one of the extremes against which
the Buddha preaches the middle-way. Not at all what we think of
as eternalism I think.

Thanks for having a go anyway.

Jayarava


     

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