Content area
Full Text
1. In her paper 'A still undeciphered text' (2009) Karen Thomson (KT hereafter) deals with several rigvedic issues, continuing with her idea that the RV needs a new approach. I agree with much of what she writes but find some errors of methodology and of fact. She sent me a copy of her paper in 2009 (together with the three Comments). I made some notes then but had to put the matter aside due to pressure from many sides. I am surprised the JIES referees did not spot the errors. Just as surprisingly, the three critical Comments on her paper also did not spot them. I shall confine my observations to these errors - without intending to demean the rest of her good work.
Before I deal with the passage 7.95.2 and samudrá, a few words on árma(-ká), vailastha- and ruins (in 1.133.3), a subject that immediately precedes KT's treatment of 7.95.2. I agree with her dismissal of Witzel's (and others') view that armaká means 'ruin'. How scholars (e.g. Witzel 1995: 3-4; Rao 1991:32; Burrow 1963 passim) came to this strange conclusion is not difficult to understand since it appears in that sense in some post rigvedic texts and as final in compound names of old villages like guptárma 'hidden, preserved'; also, initially, under the Invasion Theory, scholars thought the fiends and goblins mentioned in this stanza were the native enemies whom Indra had to destroy. However, hymn RV 1.133 has nothing that remotely suggests ruins. Moreover, stanza 6f states explicitly that invincible Indra 'does-not-kill-men' ápúru§aghna-! Certainly, there is a ghostly scene of frightful desolation with unfriendly she-fiends, goblins and demons (yátumáti, pißàci and rák§as) but not a single mention of bricks, the chief building material of Harappan constructions, stone-slabs, fallen walls, beams or rafters and the like. In sharp contrast, the Old English poem The Ruin contains abundant persuasive details of the ancient remains (from Roman times?) so that some scholars think it refers to the town of Bath (Mitchell and Robinson 1996:252-5).
KT rightly cites Mayrhofer (EWA, 2, p120) who gives for árma- the meaning wohl Brunnen 'perhaps spring' and connects the word with Tocharian álme 'spring' and names of European rivers like 'Almus' etc. This certainly seems to be so. The element...