Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s7.t5.35

v2.c27.s7.t5.35

³ Sahra is ‘desert’; Arabic sarāb, Hebrew shārābh, ‘the water of the desert,’ a term which the inhabitants of the Arabian and Persian deserts apply to this optical phenomenon. The 18th verse, chap. xli. of Isaiah is closer to the critic’s version: “ I will make the wilderness (sahra) a pool of water.” Doubtless the translators of Holy Writ, ignorant that this phenomenon was called shārābh, ‘water of the waste,’ deemed it a tautological error; for translated literally, “ and the water of the desert shall become real water,” would be nonsense: they therefore lopped off the āb, water, and read sahra instead of shārābh, whereby the whole force and beauty of the prophecy is not merely diminished, but lost. [The Author is mistaken, the words shārābh and sahra having no connexion. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, i. 1077. The mirage in Sanskrit is called mrigatrish, ‘deer’s thirst.’ Another name is Gandharvapura, ‘city of the heavenly choristers.’]