Academic literature on the topic 'Sanskrit language – Etymology'

Modern Japanese has a morphological causative, formed by suffixes on the verb, and lexical causatives. The morphological causative has been in use since Late Old Japanese. However, the etymology of this morphological causative and the status of related causative formations in Old Japanese remain unclear. This paper supports the view that lexical causative formations in Old Japanese are the direct predecessors of the morphological causative. In their morphological, syntactic, and semantic features they form a chain of morphologization with the productive causative that emerged from them. Similar diachronic developments have also been observed in Sanskrit and North American languages. Thus, the formation of a morphological causative from a lexical pattern, a path of development that has received little attention, seems to constitute a crosslinguistically valid source for the evolution of productive causatives. It is proposed that the type of change observed here is an exaptation of fossilized morphological material, which, in several important aspects, runs counter to the directionality of change posited in mainstream grammaticalization theory.

В статье представлен научный отчет о IV Международных Гуриевских чтениях – одной из флагманских конференций Северо-Осетинского института гуманитарных и социальных исследований им. В.И. Абаева (г. Владикавказ), посвященной памяти известного ученого-языковеда, доктора филологических наук, профессора, заслуженного деятеля науки Российской Федерации Тамерлана Александровича Гуриева (1929 – 2016). Трудно определить сферу научных изысканий Т.А. Гуриева: он внес весомый вклад в целый ряд направлений современного кавказоведения. Его исследования носили системный характер, что особенно актуализирует его творческое наследие, к которому все чаще обращаются в своих работах историки, этнологи, антропологи, филологи и лингвисты, фольклористы, литературоведы, культурологи, чья деятельность связана с изучением народов Кавказа. В своих трудах он осуществляет сравнительные исследования, обращает внимание на межъязыковые связи, работает над систематизацией грамматики осетинского языка. Ученый является автором базовых изысканий по кавказской и иранской ономастике, лексикографии и лексикологии, этимологии. Являясь знатоком иранских, славянских языков, санскрита, а также английского, французского языков, он трудился над составлением словарей. Неоценим его вклад в современное нартоведение: к его трудам обращаются специалисты в данной области во всем мире. Он был постоянным автором и редактором нескольких сборников научных трудов («Осетинская филология», «Проблемы осетинского языкознания», «Культура осетинской речи и стилистика»). «Гуриевские чтения» проходят в этом году уже в четвертый раз, и с каждым годом эта площадка для научного диалога только расширяется, привлекая все большее количество участников, для которых научное наследие Т.А Гуриева является важной ступенью в их исследованиях. The article presents a scientific report on the IV International Guriev Readings - one of the flagship conferences of the North Ossetian Institute of Humanitarian and Social Research named after V.I. IN AND. Abaev (Vladikavkaz), dedicated to the memory of the famous scientist-linguist, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation Tamerlan Alexandrovich Guriev (1929 - 2016). It is difficult to define the scope of T.A. Guriev: he made a significant contribution to a number of areas of modern Caucasian studies. His research was of a systemic nature, which especially actualizes his creative heritage, which is increasingly being addressed in their works by historians, ethnologists, anthropologists, philologists and linguists, folklorists, literary critics, culturologists, whose activities are related to the study of the peoples of the Caucasus. In his writings, he carries out comparative research, draws attention to interlanguage connections, works on the systematization of the grammar of the Ossetian language. The scientist is the author of basic research on Caucasian and Iranian onomastics, lexicography and lexicology, etymology. Being a connoisseur of Iranian, Slavic languages, Sanskrit, as well as English, French, he worked on compiling dictionaries. His contribution to modern nartology is invaluable: specialists in this field all over the world refer to his works. He was a regular author and editor of several collections of scientific works ("Ossetian philology", "Problems of Ossetian linguistics", "Culture of Ossetian speech and stylistics"). "Guriev's Readings" are being held this year for the fourth time, and every year this platform for scientific dialogue is only expanding, attracting an increasing number of participants for whom the scientific heritage of T.A. Guriev is an important step in their research.

The Nagas originally a Sino-Mongoloid tribe are substantiated to have originated around 10th century B.C. in the plains between Huang Ho and Yangtze Ho in North Central China. As migration is a process which is reported to have been going on since time immemorial, the Nagas too could not have isolated themselves from being a part of the mass odyssey from their homeland with the anticipation of exploring and settling in naturally upgraded habitats. Hence today, the Nagas have been found to inhabit the banks of Chindwin and Irawaddy Rivers in Myanmar, and Nagaland in India. As far as their language is concerned, it is said to be an affiliate of the greater branch of Sino-Tibetan besides sharing certain similarities with Tibeto-Burman languages. As for the etymology of the word Naga is concerned, it is said to have been derived from either of the Sanskrit word namely Nagna or Nag with respective meanings ‘naked’ or ‘mountain. Frankly speaking both the etymons in question validate the universally recognized conception of Naga identity. Nagaland itself is dotted with multiple number of hills and a faction of people among all the Naga Tribes are said to have been still embracing primitivism. But what is most conspicuous about the Nagas is that though today we know Nagaland as a self-Governing state, the fact can never be contradicted that Nagas have never considered themselves part of India despite the state being taken over by India in 1952. Right from their partially being colonized by the British in the middle of the 19th century, to their strict resistance to both the British-Indian Government and then to the post-Independence Indian Government, the Nagas have shown that their assimilation to Indian mainstream is a daunting and cumbersome exercise. The origin of the Naga National Council, preceded by the armed resistance movement of Rani Gyindulu and that of the genesis of National Socialist Council of Nagaland simply bespeak that this prospect of wholesale assimilation into Indian Sense of Nationality will await the elapse of an elongated stretch of historical time. This very aspect has been enjoying international attention and the literary activists of Nagaland such as Dr Temsula Ao and Dr Easterine Kire have contributed a lot through their literary output in harnessing this aspect, throwing new critical insights into the same. This avouched denial cum resistance to be assimilated into the greater Indian National Fabric is one of the many facets of Naga Identity which also encompasses other cultural traits such as patriarchal ideology, Naga Heraka Practices, Animism, Mythogenesis and Head-Hunting Practices.
 Objective of this write-up: This write-up endeavours its best to foreground the very traits of Naga Identity Poetics by taking into consideration selective but relevant literary fabrications, the brainchilds of one of the two internationally recognized Naga Writers, Dr Easterine Kire with the other being Dr Temsula Ao.
 Methodology: This write-up is built upon the selective reading of the summary of the novels and poems of both the writers with selective perusal of secondary anecdotage in the form of critical essays, the Naga History of Independence and Naga Anthropology.

The objective of the paper to comprehend a deep implication of what dharma meant to Yudhishthira through the length of historical events related to war and philosophical questioning on the issue. He had to fight through so much in terms of pitting his intuitive understanding of dharma against a whole gamut of mundane ideas of what dharma stood for. For instance, his struggle with his brothers on the complexity of svadhrama and its rejoinder in form of sukshadharma or knowledge of subtle consciousness. His inner conflict continued and there came a time in the last parva, Svargarohana parva, when he just denounced dharma. It was through these trials and tribulations that Yudhishthira was finally able to evolve his own idea of what real truth, conduct, duty, morality and inner consciousness were about. In other words what was true dharma. Through this paper the author attempts to tease out complexities of the philosophical queries that bothered Yudhishthira and also trace his historical trajectory in the quest.
 The method of investigation would include historicizing the text. This means locating our source, the Mahabharata, on a time line and within a geographical expanse so that we get an idea when the logic of dharma mutated and in what particular region. The text had an expansive period of formulation right from the 8th Century BCE to 4th Century CE, that is, what we understand as the Gupta period. But the text had many later regional recensions as well. We are primarily looking at the older Sanskrit version of the text as recorded in V.S.Sukthankar edited Critical edition (Bhandarkar Oriental edition, Poona) of the Mahabharata. The exercise also requires reading of the magnum opus, locating the usage of the term in association with Yudhishthira and raising some significant issues. These may include queries such as what is dharma according to the Mahabharata. Is definition fixed or is it dynamic? Do all people speak of it with the same voice? Is the notion of dharma same for Yuthishthira and his Pandava brothers? Does his wife. Draupadi, subscribe to his idea of dharma? If his notion of dharma changes over time, does it have anything to do with changing consciousness of the society or at least some people within the society? Can we get a sense of a subtle move towards a shift from karma yoga to jnana yoga and finally to bhakti yoga? In this changing paradigm where do we locate the dharma philosophy of Dharmaputra Yudhishthira, especially as there comes a time when he himself begins questioning the idea of dharma? In a sense his character brings out the dilemmas arising out of the differences in meanings and approaches of comprehending the complexities associated with the concept of dharma.
 Another point of our methodology would be to understand the etymology of the term dharma and its location in the ancient language. The Sanskrit root of the word is dhr, 'to support', 'to sustain'. In other words, it means that whereby whatever lives, is sustained, upheld, supported. More often than not, the word dharma in its ancient usage denoted the moral realm in its widest sense, meaning both morality as an ideal— man's eternal quest for the good, the right, the just—as well as the given, actual framework of norms, rules, maxims, principles that guide human action. It was integral to the doctrine of purushartha or that of the four goals of a human being; these being artha (success/material possessions), kama (passion/procreation), dharma (virtue/religious duty), moksha (self-perfection). All the four are intertwined. Throughout the epic we witness the evolution of Yudhishthira’s notion of true dharma. What comes out strongly is his holding fast to the value of nonviolence (anrishṃsya), his identification with the sukshma or subtle nature of dharma, his insistence on constricted use of brute force as a part of Kshatriya dharma, his ultimate benevolence towards his family and people. These were actually revealed to be the cause of his indisputable success in Dharma’s recurrent tests. Somewhere by the end of the epic, Yudhishthira’s error in entering into the game of dice, getting in conflict with his brothers on the issue of his duty and not being able to answer Draupadi’s queries initially appear as stepping stones in self-realization to a deeper understanding of what dharma as duty, conduct, search for truth and morality were all about. The orderly world of dharma, which was so central to his character, was eventually arrived at only through repeated trials and tribulations