From: Rick McCallister
Message: 60839
Date: 2008-10-12
> From: Francesco Brighenti <frabrig@...>"Speech" and "rule" are bound together is lots of societies e.g. in Mesoamerica where Nahuatl Tlatoani and Mangue Mankimi both mean "speaker and ruler", also European Dictator "Speaker" and "Ruler."
> Subject: [tied] Re: Dumezil
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sunday, October 12, 2008, 7:51 AM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "kishore patnaik"
>
> <kishorepatnaik09@...> wrote:
>
> > Gort et al (2007) insist Varuna is connected to Greek
> Ouranos...
> > Anthony(2008)in his latest book does not deny that
> there is no
> > connection between Varuna and Ouranos but he says we
> can not
> > disprove the disconnection either -- good logic to
> insist
> > connection, where there is none!
>
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/56535
> "Attempts to link Ouranos to Varuna etymologically
> have been
> generally abandoned. "The Greek Ouranos is the
> Sanskrit Varuna"
> is no longer as undisputed as it was in Dumézil's time
> -- compare
> Frisk's Greek and Mayrhofer's Sanskrit etymological
> dictionaries.
> From a PIE perspective, Gk. Ouranos may well be related to
> *werseti 'rains' (Puhvel, e.g., postulates Ouranos
> < *worsanos), but
> Skt. Varuna probably isn't. As for Varuna, many
> Vedicists are now
> inclined to consider a PIE root *ver- 'to speak, to
> speak solemnly,
> to speak with truth' (< PIE *u_erh1-). The name
> Varuna would, thus,
> be etymologically related to the Vedic term vrata-
> 'solemn promise,
> oath' or also, according to others, 'law,
> contract' (cf. Avestan
> urvata-), as well as to Latin verus 'true', Greek
> ereo 'I shall
> speak' etc. This etymology would make Varuna a god of
> true-speech,
> i.e. of spoken truth, stressing his role as Vedic arbiter
> of ethical
> behavior, namely, as the god of oaths."
>
> Regards,
> Francesco