Re: The evolution of word Raja

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 60500
Date: 2008-09-29

On 2008-09-27 16:46, kishore patnaik wrote:

> The word Raja could be connected to Rex, a straight line, with word "go
> or proceed" and with the word "shine" . While connecting a king with
> Rex, a straight line, or more appropriately proceeding in a straight
> line could have had tribal connotations – say, in his search for the
> lost cows or even a new herd of cows that he can win over from other
> tribes. This thinking was probed by Kosambi who tried to see the
> connection between Sanskrit words meaning search for cows and the fight.

If you take other languages into account, the derivation becomes quite
clear. The root is *h3reg^- 'go in a straight line, stretch out' and
figuratively (already in PIE) 'guide, give directions, rule'. Note that
such verbs commonly have to do with drawing a straight line,
etymologically speaking (I suppose ruling tends to be identified with
planning or deciding the course for others).

*h3reg^- had a so-called Narten present in the protolanguage, with a
long root vowel in the strong forms (like *h3ré:g^-ti 'he rules'), hence
probably the long vowel of the nasal stem *h3ré:g^-on- (Ved. rá:jan-),
which may be a fossilised present participle in *-on(t)-, and the
generalised long vowel found throughout the paradigm of the root noun
*h3re:g^-s (Lat. re:x, OIr. rí [also Gmc. *ri:k-, borrowed from Celtic],
Ved. rá:j-).

Piotr