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On The Derivational History of Iranian Mairya and Mariyaka
On The Derivational History of Iranian Mairya and Mariyaka
Farrokh Hajiani, Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo and Jalal Rahimian Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
The present study aims at investigating the derivational history of old Iranian *mairya and *mariyaka in different Iranian languages through to Modern Persian as well as in Sanskrit. To fulfill the objectives, texts representative of the use of *mariyaka from five Iranian languages have been extracted and analyzed.
1. Introduction and Background of the Study The old Iranian words *mariyaka have exercised over a century of study. The most relevant ones are summarized chronologically as follows:
a. Bartholome (1904) explored and discussed the term *mariyaka and its derivations. b. Herzfeld (1938) presented some points on the meaning of marka as it occurred in Old Persian. c. Wikander (1938) investigated the development and changes of meanings of the word *mariyaka from Vedic to Avestan. d. Dumzil (1952) presented some theories on mrya and its relation to the Indo-Iranian gods. e. Kent (1953) dealt with the meaning of the term marka in Old Persian. f. Mayrhofer (1963) analyzed the etymology of the term ma'ryawhile Nyberg (1964) discussed the word in Middle Persian regarding its etymology and meaning. g. Widengren (1969) investigated the term mre/a, and its relation with social institutions and organizations. h. Mackenzie (1971) investigated the term mrag in Middle Persian from a semantic point of view while Hinz (1972) discussed the term marka- in Old Persian. i. Mayrhofer (1986-2002) investigated the term mrya- across the Indo-European languages. j. Schmitt (2000 & 2009) dealt with the term marka- in Old Persian.
1.1. The objectives of the Study The present study aims at investigating the derivational history of Old Iranian *mairya and *mariyaka in different Iranian languages such as Avestan, Old, Middle and Early and New Modern Persian as well as in Vedic. * mariyaka originally appeared in the form of marian-ni, an Indo-Aryan loanword describing warriors who served the king of Mitanni in Mesopotamia (Widengren 1969: 12). It also appeared in Akkadian as maria-nnu 'charioteer' and in Egyptian mrin a member of a group of young soldiers. For the present study, sample texts are presented from the five Indo-Iranian languages in the belief that they are representative of the use of the word *mariyaka over its entire derivational history. In the same direction and for the ease of understanding on the part of the readers, their translations have been provided from traditional authoritative sources as indicated after each text. 2. Corpus: The uses of *mairya and *mariyaka in the IndoIranian languages In the following sections, we present texts in which examples of the word *mariyaka is presented. 2.1. Vedic According to Mayrhofer (1963), the Vedic word mrya is masculine and means 'young man, lover and free young man'. The Vedic mrya- derives from Indo-Iranian *meryo-. Examples of *mrya- in the meaning young man in Vedic are shown in the following texts. . Text 1: RV 1, 115.2 (Griffith 1896) sryo dev mu asa m rocam n m maryo na yo mabhyeti pac t | yatr naro devayanto yugh ni vitanvate prati bhadr ya bhadram || Like as a young man followeth a maiden, so doth the Sun the Dawn, refulgent Goddess: Where pious men extend their generations, before the Auspicious One for happy fortune.
Text 2: RV 3.33.10 (Griffith 1896) te k ro rn av m vac m si yay tha d r danas rathena | ni te nam sai ppyneva yo maryyeva kany a vacai te || Yea, we will listen to thy words, O singer. With wain and car from far away thou comest. Low, like a nursing mother, will I bend me, and yield me as a maiden to her lover.
vi yo rarap a ribhir navebhir vrk o na pakva h s rnyo na jet | maryo na yo m abhi manyam no 'ch vivakmi puruhtam indram || Him who is sung aloud by recent sages, like a ripe-fruited tree, a scythe-armed victor; I, like a bridegroom thinking of his consort, call hither Indra, him invoked of many
2.2. Avestan Wikander (1938) revealed the trend of semantic changes of this word between Vedic and Avestan. As many Iranian and Indic shared words, it developed a negative connotation due to Zoroastrian changes. In Avestan, mairya is among the sinners comparable to Ahrman, karapans, wolves and magicians (Wikander 1938: 35). Wikander showed that this word originally referred to 'a group of young warriors' who joined war enthusiastically, even taking on the appearance of wolves (vhrka in Avestan) because of their enthusiasm. He is even of the view that the above group of brotherhood society and its earthly counter parts worshipped Freidun (yra taona in Avestan) and Garshaseb (Krsspa in Avestan) as their guardians. However, in the society they lived a rude and reckless life which accounts for the semantic shift from warriors to villains in the Zoroastrian religion. There are three major sections of the surviving Avesta, namely, a. the Yasnas (Ys.); b. the Yashts (Yt) and c. the Vidvd t (Woodard 2008: 101-102). The following texts illustrate the use of Av mairy villain as it appears in the Ys. and Yt.
Text 1: Ys. 9.11 y ana azm srvarem yim aspo.garem nere.garem yim visavantem zairitem, yim upairi vis raoda rsty bareza zairitem, yim upairi keressp ayan ha pitm paata rapiywinem zrvnem. tafsaa h mairy xvsaa; frs Nhat. pars tarst ayan h fraspara yasyantm pem par apataa naire. man keressp (Reichelt 1911, p.2). He smashed the horned dragon, the horse-devouring, man-devouring one, the venomous, yellow one, over whom the yellow venom rose up to the height of a spear; on whom keresaspa cooked his meal in an iron pot at noontime. The villain started to get hot and to sweat. He shot out from under the pot and scattered the boiling water. frightened he ran off and a way, Keresspa, whose thoughts were those of heroes (Skjrv 2006). Text 2: Ys. 9.18 n ta yaya taurvayeni vspanm bisvatm bas davanm masynama yywm Pairikanma syrm kaoym karafnma mairyana m a biza N ran m a se mao an ma sa bizaNranm vehrkanma ayware. zaNranm hany patiyy (Reichelt 1911: 2). pereyu. ainikay (I call) down (all) that so that I may overcome the hostilities of all hostile ones, old gods and men, sorcerers and witches, false teachers, poetasters, and mumblers, villains on two feet, obscurantist's on two feet, wolves on four feet, and (their) army with wide front, deceiving and falling (all over) (Skjrv 2006) Text 3: Yt. 8.59 (To Tishtirya) m h mairy geurvayi, m ahka, m asv asravaya. Gy ahumerexs paityren imm dnm ym hirm zarayustrm (Reichelt 1911: 28). May not a villain seize it nor a witch or . . . (?) who has not performed the Gths, who destroys (this) existence, who opposes this dan, that of Ahura Mazd, that of Zarathustra (Skjrv 2006: 91).
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Text 4: Yt. 10.2 (To Mithra) merenaite vspm daiN'haom mairy miyr.druxs spitama; , Jait miyrem m any yaya satem kayadanm avavat asava. spitama m yim drvat peresN he m yim xdan asaont; uvay z asti miyr drvataa asaonaa (Reichelt 1911: 15). The knave who is false to the treaty, o spitamid, wrecks the whole country, hitting as he does the truth owners as hard as would a hundred obscurantist's. Never break a contract, o spitamid, whether you conclude it with an owner of falsehood, or a truth owning follower of the good Religion; for the contract applies to both, the owner of falsehood and him who owns Truth (Gershevitch 1967: 74-75). Text 5: Yt. 19. 56 (To the Earth and Divine Fortune) yat isa mairy fraNrase zrayaNh vouru. Kasahe man , ta xvaren is, ya asti airyanm apa.spayat vastr dahyunm ztanm aztanma yaa asaon zarayustrahe tat xvaren apa.hida, ada hu apazr bva zrayaNh nma (Reichelt 1911: vouru. kasahe vairis, y haosrav 17). The Turian villain Frangrasyn sought it from the vourukasha sea. He threw off (his) clothes and naked sought that fortune which belongs to the Aryan lands, to the born and unborn, and to orderly Zarathushtra. Then that fortune rushed forth, that fortune ran away, that fortune evaded (him). Then that stream came into being, flowing out of the Vourukasha sea, the lake called Haosravah (fameds) (Skjrv 2006: 116). Text 6: Yt. 19.77 (To the Earth and Divine Fortune) ya paiti kava haosrava tm keresem upatm aretm ym darem nava. fryweresm razurem ya dim mairy. nurem ahur kava aspasu paiti faretata: vspe bva aiwi.vany haosrava mairm tirm fraNrasynem bandaya keresavazdem puyr kana syvarsni zr.atahe narahe.ararayahea naravahe . . . ? (Reichelt 1911: 17)
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so that {...} Kavi Haosravah [outmaneuvered] Keresavazdeh / on that (famous) long race course of nine intersections / [around the All-Aryan] Forest / when the scoundrel of crooked [mind] / contended with him at horse racing. / Overcame all (of his enemies) / the lord Kavi Haosravah. / [He slew] the Turian scoundrel Frangrasyan, / he bound Keresavazdeh, / (doing that) in revenge for Syuuaran, being the son of (this) treacherously slain hero, and (in revenge) for heroic Agraratha (Humbach and Ichaporia 1998: 53) Text 7: Yt. 19.82 (To the Earth and Divine Fortune) yeN'he ta xvaren isa mairy tiry fraNrasa vspis avi karsvn yis hapta. Pairi yis hapta karsvn mairy apatat fraNrase is xvaren zarayustri. . tat xvaren frazgadata avi vaym vtpem. ina m urvisyatem, azo asatem azahe, yaya kayaa t s zaos mana ya ahurahe mazd danaysca mzdayasnis (Reichelt 1911: 17). His was the fortune that the Turian villain Frangrasyn sought in all the seven continents in the seven continents in which the villain Frangrasyn ran about seeking the fortune of Zarathushtra. Then he rushed upon that fortune pursuing it to the wide water, (calling). Ho, go back here! . . . . (Skjrv 2006: 118). 2.3. Old Persian The following texts presents the use of Old Persian mar k young man < *mariyaka (Kent 1953: 202) from DNb, Darius's inscription in Naqsh-e Rustam (Kent 1953: 137). Text 1: DNb. 50-55 mark, darsam azd kusuv, iykaram ahi, iykaramtai nar, iykaramtai paryanam: mtai ava vahistam yadaya, tayatai gausy yanhyti; avasi xsnudi, taya paratar yanhyti (Kent 1953: 138-139) O young man, very much make known of what kind you are, of what kind (are) your skills, of what kind (is) your conduct! Let not that seem the best to you which is
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spoken in your ears; listen also to that which is said besides (Schmitt 2000: 39-41). Text 2: DNb. 55-60 mark, mtayat awa nabam yadaya, taya ... kunavti: taya skauyis kunavti, awasi ddi; mark, m patiytaya mpati siytiy ayumainis bavhi m raxya(n) tu ) (Kent 1953: 138-139) O young man, let not that seem good to you, which the does, what the weak one does-observe that too! O young man, do not set yourself against the , moreover do not become (a man) without fervour in counterattack owning to your blissful happiness! Let not ! (Schmitt 2000: 39-41) 2.4. Middle Persian Middle Persian mrag derives from *mariyaka according to the regular change in the diphthong /ai/ to /e/ in Middle Persian and the nominal suffix /-ka/ or /aka/ which changes to /g/. Examples from Middle Persian are drawn from two sources. The first is the Bundahisn which was published in the late Sassanid period, and is a collection of various materials taken from a variety of sources and consists of 36 chapters (Tafazolli 1998: 141-145). The second is the Krnmag- ardaxsr - pbag n, the only historical work in the Pahlavi language. It deals with historical issues and is full of fables and myths about Ardashir, the founder of Sassanid kingdom (Tafazolli 1998: 263-265). The following texts exhibit the use of Middle Persian m rag which indicates husband in the Bundahisn. This word is frequently used with ziynag 'wife' (Wikander 1938: 22-41) and a couple (zynag, mrag) as proper names asfy n (mrag =man) and zarishom (ziynag =woman) who are the founders of the dynasties of the kings. In the Krnmag- ardaxs r - pbagn, however, this word denotes a messenger though the dictionary meaning is 'a young man' and 'husband'. Text 1: Bundahisn az am ud amak -s xwah/ bd/ zd uxt-(w) mard ud zan genn zan ud sy bd hnd. mrag Asfiyn ud ziynag zarisom nm bd hnd. (Pakzad 2005: 390)
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From Jam and Jamak who were brother and sister, a pair of male and female was born. These two persons married to each other. The husband was Asfiyn, and the wife was Zarishom (Bahar 1990: 149). Text 2: Krnmag- ardaxsr - pbagn mard ardaxsr, ka ps kd hindugn rasd, kd ham iyn/on mrag dd, ps ku mrag saxwan guft, u-s mrag guft ku tu xwady prsgn pad n kr frstd ku xwadyh rnsahr pad w-xwady man rasd? (Faravashi 2003: 137). When Ardashir's man reached the presence of the Ked of India, the latter observing the messenger, spoke to him, before be could express himself, (the purport of his message) to the following effect "Are you sent by the king of the Parsis to put me the question:" will the sovereignty of the kingdom of Iran reach unto me as its emperor? (Faravashi 2003: 149). 2.5. Early Modern Persian The Early Modern Persian examples below are drawn from two early sources. The Panchatantra is a collection of originally http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Animal_fable animal fables in verse and prose and it is "certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India". A Persian version from the 12th century became known as Kalila and Dimna (Monshi 1992: 15-17). The second source, Abu Moslem Nameh, is an epic taken from the life and heroic exploits of Abu Moslem Khorasani, the Abbasid leader and his followers (Tarsusi 1989: 5). The Early Modern Persian employs both mire and m rak, both young man, husband. Text 1: Kalila and Dimna dorudgar r dar sarandib zan besyr zib bud. n zan va hamsyeye vey r olfati padd mad va xsne dorudgar vey r az mjar bxabar sxtand. dorudgar zmn e gofteye nn r tadbri andsd va vnamud kard ke azm e safar drad va zan r ved@ kard va un u [sowhar] beraft, zan, mre r beyghnd va mi@d e madan qarr dd va dorudgar bgh az rh-e nabahreh t xne raft. mre qowm r nj dd, s@ati tavaqqof kard, andn ke be xbgh raftand " (Monshi 1992: 218)
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A carpenter lived in Sarandib with a beautiful wife. Unfortunately the wife started a friendship with a neighbour, and the carpenter's relatives made him aware of this relationship. He tried to discover if the news was correct. He pretended that he was going to go on a trip and decided to say goodbye to his wife. As soon as the husband set out for his trip, the wife informed the young man and arranged a meeting with him. But, the husband suddenly returned home from Nabahreh. The husband saw the two persons (the young man and his own wife) and waited till they went to the bed-room. . . . (Monshi 1992: 218) Text 2: Abu Moslem Nameh az qaz, be dar-e dokkni gozast ke ?inegar bd va yxi nahdeh bud, dar robud va guft : hey , mrakam, be gasti miravad (Tarsusi 1989, p.5). She passed a mirror shop and seized a piece of cloth from that shop and said that her husband was going to go on a trip (Tarsusi 1989, vol. 2, 119). 2.6 Modern Iranian usage The term mire in Post-Islamic texts used to refer to a member of an organized group. It appeared in the form of mire-ye Neishabouri which is the name of a member of Malamatiyeh sect, a group of mystics who lived in the 11th to 13th centuries CE who concealed their virtue and good behaviors though they publicized their wrongs (Dehkhoda 2007: 2803). In the above use, mire was employed as a title rather than a proper name (Ansari-heravi 1983: 540). It is interesting to add that despite the fact that the word mire does not now exist in formal standard Persian, it is used in a number of informal spoken dialects. We find, for example, m rak in the Bushehri, Bardestani and Dashti dialects in the south of Iran. It is used as a family name and carries a negative connotation as it is employed to denote occupations such as 'barber' which had been regarded among the low class occupations. This term also used to be employed in front of the name of barbers, e.g., Mir-Mohammad, Mir-Ahmad. The form mire is employed in the Bardestani and Dashti,
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Anaraki, Behdinan, Shushtari and Lori dialects with meaning of husband. Afghani maryai means 'slave' (Mayrhofer, 1963: 5-6) The Modern Persian equivalent of mire is mol/mul which means 'bastard'. Linguistically, the shift of /r/ to /l/ is very common in New Persian. The semantic shift may be explained because Persian words originated from two sources, namely, Old Persian and Avestan. As the words in Avestan have negative meanings, it is possible that the negative connotation (bastard) goes back to its origin in Avestan (villain). 3. Conclusions Regarding the corpus and discussion presented above, the concluding remarks can be classified into phonological and semantic and changes as follows: 3.1 Phonetic change One of the sub-groups of diphthongs in ancient Iranian was /ai/ which appeared as /ae/ and /ai/ in Avestan and Old Persian. The historical origin of /ai/ as a diphthong in ancient Iranian goes back to the Indo-European diphthongs such as /ai/, /ei/, /oi/ and /i/. The most important change with regard to the diphthong (/ai/) in Middle Persian is that it appeared as // while in Modern Persian it changes into //. Regarding the consonantal development, the phoneme /k/ in Avestan and Old Persian derives from PIE *kw. When this phoneme (/k/) appears in middle and final positions of a word along with vowels and consonants such as /r/ and /n/, it changes to /g/ in Middle Persian and in Modern Persian and modern Iranian dialects it changes into /e/ or /a/. The other word found in Iranian dictionaries is /mul/ meaning 'libertine' whose phonological changes involve the shift from /r/ to /l/, /a/ to /u/ and /i/ to /u/, all of which are very common. Table 1 depicts the phonological changes of *mrya- and *mariyaka.
Table 1. The Phonological Changes of *mairya- and *mariyaka
Old Indo- Old- Iranian Vedic Iranian *meryo *mariyaka mrya Avestan mairya Old Persian marika Middle Persian mrag Early Modern Persian mire mrak Modern Persian mire/mol mrak
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3.2 Semantic shift Regarding the evidence and theories concerning the semantic shifts, the reader can understand a variety of meanings from the forms mryaka > mairyaka > m rag > m ra/e such as 'young man, youth, young fighter, lover, wanderer, wicked, thief, husband, client, servant, and devotee (Table 2). Table 2. The Semantic Changes of *mairya- and * mariyaka
Old IndoIranian
young man
OldIranian
young man/ husband
Vedic
Avestan
Old Persian
young man
Middle Persian
husband / messenger
Modern Persian
husband/ low class occupation
young man, one who lover and revenges, free young sordid, liar man Mitanni member of war band
The justification of opposing and contradictory meanings which are indicated in the cited texts varies in difficulty. Some of the semantic shifts or, better, extensions, are reasonably transparent. Obviously, the association of youth, young man with a warrior is easily motivated by the martial occupations of young men across the world. For example, Old Irish ac (< PIE *h2yuh x--ks < *h2yus strength, Lat iuvencus young (cow), Skt yuva - young) indicates both young man and warrior as also does the related oclach young man, young warrior (DIL-NOP 86, 93). The cognate set under discussion derives from PIE *mryos young man where we can certainly find semantic extensions into the area of conjugal relations, e.g., Lat martus husband, lover that mirrors some of the changes found in Iranian but the other cognates do not appear to include the martial element. It may, however, be supposed that this semantic shift, matching the development seen in the Old Irish example, had already transpired by the time of Indo-Aryan incursions into the Near East as we can see in its application to warrior bands among the Mitanni. This martial aspect should have functioned beside the meaning young man in early Iranian as this provides the basis for explaining the accumulation of negative meanings found in Avestan (member of warband > liar, thief, villain). The series of meanings suggesting lower occupational status seen in Middle Persian (messenger) and Modern Persian (servant, barber, etc) may be explained in one of two ways. The first presupposes that the semantic shift associated with Avestan (villain) was sustained in later Iranian in PostVolume 38, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2010
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Islamic times. For example, Av pairik demonic courtesan continued in Post-Islamic Iranian (par) with the same negative connotations but also emerged in some Iranian dialects and standard Persian with what was probably the earlier (pre-Zarathrustra) positive meaning. This is why many Iranians today still name their daughters Par angel. Alternatively, the semantic basis of both youth and young warrior may be sufficient to explain the shift to lower status occupations. Returning to the early Irish example above, oclach not only meant young man and warrior but also came to mean an attendant, servant, vassal, i.e., someone occupying a lower status. This extension of the semantic field might also help to explain the Modern Persian application of mire to the followers of the Malamatiyeh sect. Irish oclach similarly came to be employed to describe the followers or disciples of saints. Acknowledgments We would like to express our deepest appreciation to J. P. Mallory, the General Editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies, for his patience and sympathetic editorial advice which made the printing of this paper possible. References
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Humbach, H. and Ichaporia, P. R. 1998 Zamyd Yasht: Yasht 19 of the Younger Avesta: Text, Translation, Commentary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Kent, R. G. 1953 Old Persian (Grammer, Text, Lexicon ). New Haven, American Oriental Society. Makenzie, D. N. 1990 A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London, Routledge. Mallory, J. P. and Adams, D. Q. 2006 The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-IndoEuropean World. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Mayrhofer, M. 1963 Kurgefa tes etymologischen Wrterbuch der Altindischen, Band II, Heideberg, Carl Winter Universitt Verlag. Mayrhofer, M. 1986-2002 Etymologisches Wrterbuch des Altindoarischen, I-III. Heidelberg. Monshi, N.A. 1992 Kalila and Dimna (corrected by M. Minavi). Tehran, Tehran Publications. Nyberg, H. S. 2003 A Manual of Pahlavi. Tehran, Asatir Publications. Pakzad, F. 2005 Bundahishn Band I. Tehran, Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia. Reichelt, H. 1911 Avesta Reader, Texts, Notes Glossary and Index. Strassburg, Trbner.
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Schmitt, R. 2000 The Old Persian Inscription of Naqsh-I Rustam and Persepolis. London, School of Oriental and African Studies. Schmitt, R. 2009 Die Altpersischen Inschriften Der Achaimeniden. Wiesbaden, Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag. Skjrv, P. O. 2006 Introduction to Zoroastrianism. Unpublished, Harvard University. Tafazolli, A. 1998 Tarikhe adabeyat-e Iran-e Pish az Eslam. Tehran, Sokhan Publications. Tarsusi, A. 1989 Abu Moslem Nameh (Corrected and edited by T. Tafazzoli) (4 vols.) Tehran, Elmi and Farhangi Publications. Widengren, G. 1969 Der Feudalism in alten Iran. Mnnerbund -GefolgswesenFeudalismus in der iranischen Gesellschaft im Hinblick auf die indogermanischen Verhltnisse. Kln and Opladen. Wikander, S. 1938 Der Arische Mnnerbund. Lund, Hakan Ohlssons Buchdruckerei. Woodard, R. D. 2008 The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas. Cambridge, Cambridge University.