Hi Bryan,
Thanks for showing the many possible ways in which "nimitta" could be
derived. The information I found for the Sanskrit derivation comes from the
follwoing dictionary which is on the same website as MW:
<< Vacaspatyam
nimitta¦ na0 ni + mida--kta . “anātmanepadanimitte” pā
sūtranirdeśānna na dasya naḥ . 1 hetau 2 cihne ca amaraḥ
“nimitteṣu ca sarveṣu hyapramatto ca bhavennaraḥ” smṛtiḥ
“mayaiva pūrvaṁ nihatā dhārttarāṣṭrāḥ nimittamātraṁ bhava
savyasācin . >> (...followed by quotations).
I checked the Amarakośa and found this:
nimittaṃ hetulakṣmaṇoḥ (two meanings)
I have looked at one of its many commentaries for this line and I'm much
puzzled by it and will need to compare with some of the other commentaries.
Usually d ending of a root with a kta added directly without the augment i
becomes -nna, not -tta.
I'll let you know if anything better comes up. Some years ago I worked on
finding a plausible derivation but without success.
Btw, I received the Kaccāyana grammar books in the mail todayAlready I've
found some serious errors with the Pali, e.g., Yatanattaya instead of
Ratanattaya (Vol. 2, p.117). The grammar totals 1325 pages.
Best wishes,
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy]"
<palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: September 27, 2016 12:28 AM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Nimitta
Dear JIm,
Thanks for this research
I think the reason for the semantic ambiguity is that there are several
forms that are getting mixed up
1) nir + mā (nirmāti or nirmimite p.p. nirmita) whose primary meaning is
build or create2) ni + mā (nimimite, p.p. nimita) whose primary meaning is
measure
The Pali for #2 is nimināti ("measures, exchanges, barters") p.p. niminita
The Pali form for #1 is nimmiṇāti ("creates, fashions, builds"), p.p.
nimmita.
Nobody knows where nimitta comes from. It looks like a past participle, but
of what verb? Skt also has a verb mi which means to "fix, fasten in the
earth, set up, found build", p. p. mita ("set up, established, etc."). The
verb also appears to have an alternate form mit per MW. ni + mi means "to
fix or dig in, erect, raise" and is attested in the RV. It also means to
"perceive, notice, understand", attested in the AV. So that would be a good
candidate for the origin of nimitta, if ni + mit was used in historical
times: ni + mit + ta, but it is not attested as far as I know.
Then there is the verb you mention, mid which has the meaning "grow fat" and
also goes back to the RV. But nothing is attested with the ni suffix, that I
have been able to find. This verb is also related to mith (see MW sv. mitra)
with meaning "unite, pair, couple", but again, there is no ni + mith, that I
can find.
In Pāli the only forms we have are nimitta and nimmita ("created,
fashioned").
We know that in the first manuscripts written down in the first century BCE,
geminates were not written down (Norman, Philological Approach to Buddhism,
107) . So the word would have been written as nimita. It was up to future
scribes, when transcribing back into "correct" Pāli to determine whether
the -m- or -t- were geminates or not. Now if there was still a bhāṇaka
around and he pronounced the words with the geminates intact, then the
scribe might have had a chance of getting it right, but if not, it was up to
the scribe to choose. Exactly why he/she chose nimitta, I don't know (Skt.
nimitta is fairly late, from MBh time), but it looks like some of the
meanings of the other verbs got mixed up so that nimitta is a composite of
ni + mā (measure), nir + mā (build) and perhaps ni + mi(t) (erect, raise,
perceive, understand) and perhaps ni + mid ("meaning"?) that you mention. I
don't know, but it looks like nimitta arose because of mixing up all these
verbs.
Anyways, these are just some thoughts. I don't know whether we'll ever
understand the derivation of nimitta, but we can speculate. If it was formed
regularly, then it would have to come from ni + mid + ta as you suggest, or
ni + mith + ta, which would both produce nimitta in Prakrit. where did you
find the derivation for ni + mid + kta with the meaning of "cause" and
"sign"?
Best wishes, Bryan