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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2.t3: Nirukta

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2.t3

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English

Nirukta

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Nirukta (尼卢致论) is an ancient Indian etymological work dealing with one of the six kinds of supplementary knowledge of *Vedanga* and a compulsory subject to be studied by all the students of the Brahmin community in the early stage of their education. The first volume of *Hiranyasaptati* which was the Samkhya classic translated by Indian

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A Collection on Buddhism: Nirukta and Liu Xi's 'Explanation of Names' (Fanxue ji: Niluzhilun yu Liu Xi de 'Shiming'), Rao Zongyi

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Tripitaka Paramārtha during the Chen Dynasty, had the earliest reference of 'ni-lu-duo'( 尼禄多) for Nirukta in Chinese translation. The first volume of Ji Zang's *Commentary on One-Hundred-Verse* completed during the Sui Dynasty had another Chinese name ni-lu-duo (尼鹿多) for the same Indian term of Nirukta. The fourth volume of the *Lalitavistara Sutra* translated by Divakara in the Tang Dynasty listed many ancient Indian subjects such as *Nirukta* and *Siksa* etc. According to certain available sources, the most important work of Indian etymology in the early period was *Nirukta* written by Yaska which was finished in the 5ᵗʰ century BCE (or 7ᵗʰ century BCE), and is believed to have been prepared before the *Panini-sutra*. It was similar to the earliest ancient Chinese exegesis of Er-ya (尔雅). The concerned work of Nirukta has been divided into 12 chapters and it mainly annotated large collection of words. According to a highly valued opinion of Yaska, the root of all the words can be traced in this book with etymological meanings of nouns and verbs. It has been further remarked that 'Nirukta can explain the causes of the names of all the objects'. However, it doesn't have much more obvious influence in China and Rao Zongyi's Nirukta and Liu Xi's 'Explanations on Names' are the only important research papers for Chinese scholars to study and understand *Nirukta*.

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(Chen Ming)

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