Reflecting the divine mansion: Vedic amáti-

Georges-Jean Pinault (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

The Vedic noun amáti-, feminine, has been generally understood as meaning 'image, form, appearance' ; it is translated by 'emblem' in most of the occurrences in the Rigveda, according to the translation of Jamison and Brereton (2014). It is however deprived of any etymological analysis. In addition, the ancient Vedic cult did not resort to the image of gods. The paper reviews the whole evidence and shows that this noun can be understood everywhere as 'dwelling, home, mansion', actually of the gods, and especially of Savitar. This semantic definition allows an etymological connection with the Proto-Indo-European *nem- 'to allot, attribute', in that case a place for dwelling.

Mots clés: Indo-Iranian; Vedic vocabulary; etymology; Sanskrit morphology; poetics; Rigveda; Indo-European linguistics

Domaines: Linguistique; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Littératures; Religions

Georges-Jean Pinault. Reflecting the divine mansion: Vedic amáti-. Andrew Miles Byrd; Jessica DeLisi; Mark Wenthe. Tavet Tat Satyam. Studies in honor of Jared S. Klein on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Beech Stave Press, pp.246-257, 2016, 978-0-9895142-3-1. ⟨halshs-01445781⟩