From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 18450
Date: 2003-02-05
----- Original Message -----
From: "george knysh" <gknysh@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 4:52 PM
Subject: [tied] Hydronyms and toponyms of Vedic area
> One such might be the hydronyms and toponyms of the Vedic area. Is there any evidence that those of NW India have retained (or demonstrate) non-IE characteristics? To any extent?
Some of them may not have clear etymologies, but in general the hydronymy of NW India seems to have been very thoroughly Indo-Aryanised.
> I also have a curious little passage on which I would appreciate the opinion of our Vedic experts. In RV 1.30.9 Indra (in the Griffith transl.) is described as the "hero of our ancient homeland" ("anu pratnasya ankaso"). Where "Anu" is explained as a "non-Aryan" (pre-Indo-Aryan?) designation. Would it be too bold to see this as an indication of "fusion" (with Indra being identified with some preceding "local" deity?)
No, it's a misunderstanding. Anu- does occur as a non-Aryan (and possibly non-Indic) tribal name in the Rigveda, but not in this verse. The passage actually reads:
<anu pratnasyaukasa [= pratnasya okasas] huve tuvipratiM naram>
"Next, former[gen.] home[gen.] call[1sg.] strongly-resisting[acc.] hero[acc.]"
Or, in plain English, "Next, I call him mighty to resist, the hero of our ancient home".
<anu> is merely an adverb here, one of the favourite sentence connectives in the language. It means 'then, afterwards, next', etc., and is so common that it's often left untranslated. The word also functions as a preposition (or postposition) meaning 'after, beyond, along'.
Piotr