ETYMOLOGY AND MAGIC: YĀSKA'S NIRUKTA, PLATO'S CRATYLUS, AND THE RIDDLE OF SEMANTIC ETYMOLOGIES

AbstractSemantic etymologies are to be distinguished from historical etymologies. A historical etymology presents the origin or early history of a word. Semantic etymologies do something completely different. They connect one word with one or more others which are believed to elucidate its meaning. Semantic etymologies are practically universal in pre-modern cultures, and there are treatises in some cultures - such as Yāska's Nirukta in ancient India, Plato's Cratylus in ancient Greece - that specifically deal with them. This article addresses the question how modern scholarship should try to understand semantic etymologizing. It is argued that, being a universal phenomenon, semantic etymologizing is in need of a universal explanation. Drawing inspiration from certain pre-modern philosophies, it is proposed to study this phenomenon in the light of another category of phenomena that is often called "magical".

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FROM LAW TO DHARMA: STATE LAW AND SACRED DUTY IN ANCIENT INDIA

Journal of Law and Religion ◽

10.1017/jlr.2019.36 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 284-309 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mark McClish

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Max Weber ◽

Early History ◽

State Courts ◽

State Law ◽

Ancient India ◽

Royal Courts ◽

History Of ◽

Historical Origins ◽

Over Time

AbstractThe legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmaśāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmaśāstras teach the dharma, or “sacred duty,” of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate disputes that come before his courts, and it is widely accepted that a need to articulate the king's dharma led the composers of the Dharmaśāstras over time to fashion rules for state courts, a body of law called vyavahāra. Scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine and Max Weber saw in the Dharmaśāstras evidence of the disentanglement and rationalization of law, respectively. A close examination of our sources, however, shows that the law of royal courts emerged not within the Dharmaśāstra tradition, but within an adjacent and decidedly more secular tradition of statecraft. It was gradually absorbed into Dharmaśāstra texts, where it was reconfigured as sacred duty and its historical origins were obscured. This article argues that the early history of state law in India is best described, therefore, not as a transition from dharma to law, but as a transition from law to dharma.

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A Peep into the Early History of India. By R. G. Bhandarkar. 7½ × 5, iv + 74 pp. Bombay : Taraporevala, 1920. - Ancient India. By Upendra Nath Ball. 7 × 5, iv + 236 pp. Calcutta: Kamala Book Depot, 1921.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland ◽

10.1017/s0035869x00054526 ◽

1923 ◽

Vol 55 (1) ◽

pp. 128-128

Author(s):

J. Allan

Keyword(s):

Early History ◽

Ancient India ◽

History Of

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32. The Early History of Sonship in Ancient India

Man ◽

10.2307/2788895 ◽

1924 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 40

Author(s):

Nares C. Sen-Gupta

Keyword(s):

Early History ◽

Ancient India ◽

History Of

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Ancient origins of caesarean section and contextual rendition of Krishna’s birth

International Journal of Scientific Reports ◽

10.18203/issn.2454-2156.intjscirep20163650 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (11) ◽

pp. 296

Author(s):

Sharadendu Bali ◽

Maneshwar Singh Utaal

Keyword(s):

Caesarean Section ◽

Ancient Greece ◽

Ancient Rome ◽

Post Mortem ◽

Ancient India ◽

Roman World ◽

Religious Books ◽

The World ◽

History Of ◽

Knowledge And Practice

<p class="abstract">A Caesarean section is defined as “the surgical termination of pregnancy or delivery by operative opening of the uterus”. Caesarean sections ancestory can be traced back to the ancient (Graeco-Roman) world. Though there is very little information still extant about practices of this kind in antiquity, there are many folktales and popular stories from all over the world that tell of people being born in this fashion. Indian religious books describe the birth of Buddha through his mother’s right flank. Brahma was believed to be born through the umbilicus of his mother. Sage Sushruta, a founder of ancient Hindu medicine mentions the importance of performing a post-mortem caesarean section in his medical treatise “Sushruta Samhita”. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that knowledge and practice of this type of procedure was practiced in ancient Greece, ancient Rome and even ancient India. It is these early practices, from this part of the world, which are thought to have formed the foundations for what is known today in the modern Western medicine as the “caesarean section”. Therefore it is paramount to explore the practices and trace the history of this nature in the in more detail<span lang="EN-IN">. </span></p>

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Some early history of replica techniques for electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100130018 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 1076-1077

Author(s):

Robert M. Fisher

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Electron Microscopy ◽

Optical Microscope ◽

Early History ◽

Bulk Materials ◽

Thin Sections ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Reflected Light ◽

History Of ◽

Electron Microscopes

By 1940, a half dozen or so commercial or home-built transmission electron microscopes were in use for studies of the ultrastructure of matter. These operated at 30-60 kV and most pioneering microscopists were preoccupied with their search for electron transparent substrates to support dispersions of particulates or bacteria for TEM examination and did not contemplate studies of bulk materials. Metallurgist H. Mahl and other physical scientists, accustomed to examining etched, deformed or machined specimens by reflected light in the optical microscope, were also highly motivated to capitalize on the superior resolution of the electron microscope. Mahl originated several methods of preparing thin oxide or lacquer impressions of surfaces that were transparent in his 50 kV TEM. The utility of replication was recognized immediately and many variations on the theme, including two-step negative-positive replicas, soon appeared. Intense development of replica techniques slowed after 1955 but important advances still occur. The availability of 100 kV instruments, advent of thin film methods for metals and ceramics and microtoming of thin sections for biological specimens largely eliminated any need to resort to replicas.

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