--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...>
wrote:
> Any PIE in this arna-aruna word? Arunash was the Mittani sea-god;
> Varuna (<*Aruna?) was a sea-god too. Maybe a god of stormy seas
> fit into Poseidon role...
As I wrote earlier, Skt. arn.a- is from the verbal root ar- (< PIE
*h3er- 'to rise, stir, move') 'to put in motion, send, move, rise'.
A. Lubotsky traces the term back to PIE *h3erno- 'rising (wave)'.
Incidentally, Lubotsky gives some close cognates of R.gvedic
Sanskrit arn.a- that, according to him, would mean or be associated
with sea:
arn.ava- 'undulating, bobbing; undulating flood, sea' (RV+);
arn.as- 'undulating flood, swell, sea, sea of air' (RV);
arn.asa- 'undulating; sea'
As for the connection with Hittite aruna-, nom.sg. arunas 'sea'
(also found as the name of a sea-god reflecting a Hurrian cultic
tradition), see Puhvel's _Hittite Etymological Dictonary_ at
http://tinyurl.com/3xfjmx
Interestingly Puhvel, although he at first states "etymology
uncertain", opens the possibility to an etymological connection with-
with Skt. arn.a- (in this case, both words would derive from PIE
*h3er- 'to rise, stir, move', with parallel semantic development >
flood > sea, see above). This is considered "most likely" in David
M. Weeks' Ph.D. dissertation on Hittite vocabulary at
http://tinyurl.com/2b4cux (see on p. 11)
Re: the conncetion of Hittite aruna- with the watery Vedic Aryan god
Varun.a via Mitannian (Hurrian) influence, Puhvel states
that "speculations about a contact-based tie-in with the Mitannian
(Indo-Aryan) Uruwana, (V)aruna were abortive." So also as to the
opposite view -- e.g., "Kretschmer believes erroneously that Varuna
comes from the Hittite Arunash and was coloured with Asian and
Babylonian ideas" (M. Eliade, _Patterns of Comparative Religion_,
Univ. of Nebraska Press 1996, p. 117). Varun.a was not primarily a
sea-god, at least in the early Vedic period.
Kindest regards,
Francesco