Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/163

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May, 1873.] GREEK WORDS AMONG HINDUS. 145 fcho southern Buddhists; at the same timo with him also tho name of his birth-place and capital Ala s an dfi, (or - s a d d a), i. c. AXf£av&pfia is men¬ tioned. Possibly also, as Lassen assumes, tho name of the M1 e c h h a—or rather P a r a s i - k a-king Megha which occurs in tho drama Mudrd- rdkshasa, contains a reminiscence of the old royal title peyas PaatXevs, because, although this drama itself is comparatively modern, the author of it may probably have drawn the materials for it from ancient sources, and the name B a s i 1 i (i.e. doubt¬ less jSao-iXevr) actually occurs, according to Schief- ner,* * * * § among tho northern Buddhists. As I have also already ventured further to surmisef that the royal name Jaloka, Jalaukas in the Kash¬ mir chroniclo is referable to SeXfincov, it is further possible also that their Amita, A m i t & b a , is connected with A pvvras. The buildings of A 8 u r a Maya immortalized in the Mahdbhdrata reminds us of the edifices of DroXc/xaior, and tho former moreover has perhaps inherited only from Qro(fiaios the astronomer a portion of his later reputation as a teacher of astronomy, just as also finally the powerful Yavana king Kasorumant, in the Maluiblulrata, doubtless represents only a faded reminiscence of the xaia-ap of post-Chris¬ tian centuries,X transformed by a fanciful popular etymology. Two of the above names are preserved to us, perhaps in a direct translation, Apollodoto9 namely as B h a g a d a 11 a,§ and Demctrios, as Datt&mitr a,|| the first appearing in the Mahd¬ bhdrata, as a Yavana king, and the second as a Sindhu-Sauvira king. Of the Roman age there is, strangely enough, besides the name Romaka.f nothing but the word dindra—denarius. Whether thateri in Ebn Haukal is referable to aTanjpoe or rtrpa-, or, according to Dowson’s recently ex-

  1. See my Ind. Skizzen, pp. 83, 84.

t See my dissertation on tho Biiwiyana, p. 33. [bid. Antiq. Vol. I. p. 240.] X Ind. Skizzen, p. 88; jalaukas, “leech,” and ka- • erumant, “ondued with a spine,” are but little suitable really to have been original names of kings. Indeed, Las¬ sen derives Jaloka from jayaloka (II. 273). The trans¬ formation of Turamaya into Asura Maya may per¬ haps be recognized as due to the political tendencies of those times. § According to Yon Gutschmid’s supposition. Comp. Ind. Stud. V. 152. || Thus according to Lassen. On his town Demetri- as = D'Ut'lmxtrt, see Ind. Skizz., pp. 82,83; my translation of the MdJavikdgnimitram, Pref. p.47; and my Dissert, on the RdmAyana, n. 77 [Ind. Antiquary, vol. I. p. 179] ; from it a Yon aka, son of Dhammadeva, makes his appearance as a donor of pious gifts in the inscriptions of a Buddhist temple [Jour. Bomb. B. R. As. Soc. vol. V. p. 54]. TT In the inscriptions mentioned in tho preceding note, mention is made also of the gifts of a R o m a k a, Bon of Yelidata.—In the great JAtaka collection (see Wester- gaard, Catal. der Orient. MSS. der Kopenhag. Bibl., p. 39) also a Romakajdtakam is mentioned (III. 8, 7, no. pressed opinion, has nothing to do with Greek, remains undecided. In dramma the word dpaxprj was preserved down to late times. Tho words khalina, bridle—aivos, and euruhgd (in the Mahdvausonnd Mahdbhdrata) amine-shaft— erupty£, refer probably to bellico-political relations with the Greeks. Hero I recall to mind also my surmise (Iml. Stud. IX. 380) concerning the re* I markable statement of the Pdniniyd Sikshd, v. 6, on tho salutation of tho Surdshtra women (San- rdshtrihl ndri) : a r a according to one and t a k r a according to the other recension—that tho reading ought to bo k h o r &, or. rather that it is to be borrowed from tho second hemistich, and that theroiu a reference to tho Greok salutation cupe is to be sought.* Not so much to political as to commercial rela¬ tions tho words kastira—Ka<r<riTfpot,f kasturi— Ka(TT(iipfiov,Jcahgn—Ktyxpos, meld ink—pcXas, samitd 8amUla—aepibaXit^ Hind, mulva—poXv&os §, aro indebted for their acceptance. Esop’s fables are probably responsible for the two words lopdka— aXa>nr)£, and kramelaka—KaprjXoet both of them connected with Hindu words or rather roots. The most numerous appropriations belong to the as - tronomico-astrological domain. In the first place— as already observed, by Asura Maya—who, according to later traditions, lived in Bomalcapura —is possibly meant IlroXepaior the author of tho Almagest; further by Manittha perhaps Ma- vtOoiv tho author of the Apotelesmata is to be un¬ derstood ;|| at all events by Paul is a a ElavXor is meant,—probably Paulus Alexandrinus, in whoso Elowyayyr] almost all the technical astrologi¬ cal terms which have passed into Sanskrit may be identified, whence probably we ought to recognize it as the basis of tho Paultta-siddhdnta which unfortunately exists only in scanty and insufficient 272). Perhaps this text maf again afford desiderated in¬ formation on Roman relations. (Comp, below the data from the Baverujdtaka.) • Snr&shtrn^vpaarpa was long subject to Greek dominion. The oldest coins of those parts show Greek types and letters; the princes were satraps of the Greek ldngs, and reckoned, Thomas states, according to the era of the Seleucides.—Y a v a n a girls still appear in the drama* of KMiddsa os attending to the personal wants of kings, and probably they saluted them also with tho salutation of their Yavana language; comp, also Introd. to my Transl. of the Malavikd. pp. 35, 4(5, 47. (It may be re¬ marked that already Ts. Y. 3, 7, 2 mentions & female body¬ guard.) f From Karacrtbqpos ? see. Ind. Skizzen, pp. 75, 89. X Bpcauso the assumption that these (comp, simila, similar} o) are old Indo-Germanic words is suspicious even from the meaning. Wheat-flour was scarcely known to our Indo-Germanic ancestors. § Comp. Pott in the Zeitschrift fiir d. K. des Morg. IY 261;—k n p y a, a base metal, can hardly be said to have anything to do etymologically with cu/prwn. || Kern (Introd. to Vardha Mihira's Brihit Samhita, p. 52) once thought also of Manillas.