Essay name: Nighantu (critical study)
Author:
Gopalakrishna N. Bhat
Affiliation: Karnatak University / Department of Sanskrit
This is an English study of the Nighantu and its commentary called the Nirukta by Yaska. The Nighantu is an ancient Sanskrit lexicon dealing with the words of the Vedic language. This essay presents a detailed analysis of the extant five chapters of this text and examines it's authorship, tracing meanings of words through Vedic texts by providing a comparative study involving Sayana's interpretations and connections with other texts like Amarakosa.
Chapter 4 - Second Adhyaya (chapter) of the Nighantu (study)
102 (of 107)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
367 4
. Namah: The word occurs with its forms in one hundred
and seventy nine places. It is not used in the sense assigned.
The word has already been explained under anna-namani
(Nigh. 2.7322).
5. Pavih: The word with its forms occurs in thirteen
places. The word is used in the sense assigned, in five
places, It has been already explained under vannamani
(Nigh. 1.11.15).
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6. Srkah: The forms, srkam, srke of the word occur in
two places each. They are used in the sense assigned and
S膩ya峁嘺 quotes Nighantu (2.20.6) while explaining the word
in RV 1.32.12 as it belongs to vajranama. According to
him, the word v峁沰ah occurs after the word srkah. Though
Sarup does not include it in the list, he states: "The
eighteen words are synonyms of thunderbolt. But without
vrka their number is only seventeen.
7. Vrkah: The word occurs in twenty eight places with
its forms. It is not used in the sense of thunder-bolt.
The word v峁沰ih is explained by Sayana as y峁沰yo hi峁僺ak膩
(I. 183.4) or stenah (VIII.22.6). S膩ya峁嘺 quotes Nirukta
(6.26) as v峁沰olangalam bhavati vikartan膩t iti Yaska岣�
and explains the word as langalena.
