Just to make it clear, it is not Mayrhofer but Wright who refers to a
hypothetical Middle Indic form.
Why not contact Prof. Wright (via BSOAS London) and ask him.
Heiner
Am 26.10.2021 um 19:54 schrieb Jim Ryan:
Hi,
I wrote to Andrew Ollett (U. Of Chicago) regarding “vaikharī” in
Prakrit. He replied as below. I got his permission to post his reply
as it adds to the discussion (and may in fact show that we might not
be able to track the proper history of this word with current knowledge.)
Jim
Dear Jim (if I may),
I saw the discussion on INDOLOGY but didn't have too much to add.
Mayrhofer interprets it, sensibly, as if it had come from a
hypothetical Middle Indic form (I don't say "Prakrit" for reasons that
will become clear) *vi-kṣarati, which is also the etymology of the
Hindi word bikharnā "scatter." The Pāiyasaddamahaṇṇava
<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdsal.uchicago.edu%2Fdictionaries%2Fsheth%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cjryan%40ciis.edu%7Ca5bf7e180e1048c9f82308d998a58739%7C34d667e31c5d4101b901e5d9fd8d69d9%7C0%7C0%7C637708658969521889%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=uMi946zgBY9cYLnoHkGauScJiAFFrP%2FU17lVDxs0DJo%3D&reserved=0>,
an early dictionary of Prakrit, does give vikkhara- as a verbal stem,
meaning to "scatter" or "spread," attested apparently in the
Uvāṅgadasāo, an early Jain text. But in fact the usual "Prakrit" form
of the root that appears in Sanskrit as *kṣar is jhar-. In fact, in
the Prakrit texts I have (i.e., literary Prakrit, produced between the
second and the twelfth centuries), I find neither vikkhara- or
vijjhara-. While we're at it, an origin from *vikr̥ta- might be
entertained as well.
None of this, in any case, would explain why Bhartr̥hari should have
chosen to use a Middle Indic form, or a form derived from Middle
Indic, for a major element of his theory, especially when there was a
Sanskrit term easily to hand. I know of no citations of vaikharī or
similar words (*vēkharī, *vekkharī, *vaïkharī, *veharī, *vikkharī*,
etc.) in Prakrit.
I hope this helps, although I suspect it won't!
Andrew
On Oct 24, 2021, at 6:38 AM, Rolf Heinrich Koch via INDOLOGY
<[email protected]> wrote:
Yes, it has a Prakrit origin as Madhev suspects. See
Mayrhofer, A Concise Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary, vol 3,p. 267
"vaikharī f. Name eines best. Lautes / name of a particular sound
(Up., u.a.): nach Wright, NCSL 24 falsch sanskritisiertes Patronym.
von mi. *vikkhara- < ai. viksarä- m. „Abfluß44 (AV), „Beiname
Visnus44 (ep.,u.a.)".
Heiner
Am 24.10.2021 um 02:11 schrieb Jim Ryan via INDOLOGY:
Hi,
I’m curious about the term Vaikharī for articulated speech. In the
/Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies /volume on the Grammarians,
judging from the index, it seems this term was first used by
Bhartṛhari (at least in a grammatical context.) V. S. Apte cites the
Mallinatha commentary on /Kumārasaṃbhava /for an authoritative
reference of the word, but that is quite late (15th century.)
Firstly, are there instances of this word used with any frequency
before Bhartṛhari? Secondly, the lexicons give no good verbal root
or root word for it. I note that the word /vaikṛtī /as “alteration”
has a similar shape (and wouldn’t fit badly in the “articulated
speech” category of Vāc), but I’m presuming that the word vaikharī
is not a Prakrit-derived form. So… where and how do we get to this
important term in language theory in India, which seems unrelated to
any other common root or word?
Jim Ryan
Asian Philosophies and Cultures (Emeritus)
California Institute of Integral Studies
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Dr. Rolf Heinrich Koch
www.rolfheinrichkoch.wordpress.com
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Dr. Rolf Heinrich Koch
www.rolfheinrichkoch.wordpress.com
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