Dhammapada 268

268

Na monena munī hoti,
mūḷharūpo aviddasu;
Yo ca tulaṃva paggayha,
varamādāya paṇḍito.

, 269. A man is not a Muni because he observes silence (mona, i.e. mauna), if he is foolish
[265. This is a curious etymology, because it shows that at the time when this verse was written, the original meaning of sramana had been forgotten. Sramana meant originally, in the language br the Brahmans, a man who performed hard penances, from sram, 'to work hard,' &c. When it became the name of the Buddhist ascetics, the language had changed, and sramana was pronounced samana. Now there is another Sanskrit root, sam, 'to quiet,' which in Pâli becomes likewise sam, and from this root sam, 'to quiet,' and not from sram, 'to tire,' did the popular etymology of the day and the writer of our verse derive the title of the Buddhist priests. The original form sramana became known to the Greeks as {Greek: Sarmanai}, that of samana as {Greek: Samanaioi}; the former through Megasthenes, the latter through Bardesanes, 80-60 B.C. (See Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, II, 700.) The Chinese Shamen and the Tungusian Shamen come from the same source, though the latter has sometimes been doubted. See Schott, Über die doppelte Bedeutung des Wortes Schamane, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1842, p. 463 seq.