Re: [tied] The aliens in their macs

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 12754
Date: 2002-03-19

Actually, both <nir-va:ta-> and <ni-va:ta-> are possible, the first containing the privative prefix <nis.-> 'without', and the second <ni-> 'down' ('down-wind' is here interpreted as '[a place] sheltered from the wind' and contrasts with <upa-va:ta-> 'up-wind' = '[a place] exposed to the wind'). Of course a windproof overcoat is still different from a spacesuit. Niva:katavaca is actually the name of a captain of demons (of the Pauloma and Ka:lakeya races) mentioned several times in the S'rimad-bHa:gavatam. The idea that he wore some special kind of garment is apparently somebody's "rationalisation" of his name.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
From: wtsdv
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 9:35 AM
Subject: [tied] odd ideas (was: Re: Shaved Beaver}

--- In cybalist@......, "anthonyappleyard" <MCLSSAA2@......> wrote:
>
> There are old Indian reports of India being invaded by "demons"
> from a land in the sky, and they all looked alike, and they wore
> garments called nivatakavacha, which was interpreted as "no-air-
> suits". Alas for someone's ufological ideas, someone else pointed
> that Sanskrit "ni-" = "without" is correctly "niH" and would be
> "nir-" if the next sound is a voiced consonant, and the word
> means "practical layer garment", i.e. several layers of ordinary
> garments, and the land in the sky was likely merely Tibet.

The online Sanskrit dictionary does give 'nivAta' as "windless"
and 'kavaca' as "armour, mail, jacket".  Maybe that's the source
of the "no-air-suit" idea.  Of course that's still a long way
from "space suit"!  I can't help thinking of the large heavy felt
overcoats worn by various Turkic, Magyar and Iranian shepherds. 
The Ossetic word for this type of coat is 'nymæt' < Ir. *nimata-,
which can also mean just "felt".  Could 'nivatakavaca' be the
Sanskritization of an Iranian word?  What's the length of the
word's second vowel?