The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c13.9

c13.9

*Turos* is an old Greek word used in the *Odyssey*, and it has not yet been explained by anything in Indo-Germanic. Dr. Schrader therefore records a suggestion that it should be derived from Turko Tataric *turak*. But if Sanskrit *sâra* and *sarpis* are found in Greek *oros* (whey) and *elphos* (butter,) it is not reasonable to suppose that *turos* alone was borrowed from a non-Aryan source. *Takra* in modern Sanskrit means ‘curds mixed with water and churned’ and perhaps it may be contended that we cannot identify it with *turos*, which means ‘cheese.’ I have, however, shewn that *takra* etymologically means ‘curdled milk’ and not ‘curds dissolved in water’ which is evidently its secondary meaning. Besides when we see that *sâra* which in Sanskrit denotes ‘curdled milk,’ has become *oros* = whey in Greek, and *serum* in Latin, there is nothing unusual if we find *takra* and *turos* used in slightly different senses in the two languages. I have already suggested in the body of the essay that we may identify Sk. *Shukra* with Gk. *Kupris*. *Chakra* = *kuklos*, *Shukra* = *Kupris*, and *takra* = *turos*, may thus be taken to illustrate the application of the rule above discussed, regarding the three-fold change of *kr* or *gr*, to Greek and Sanskrit *medially*; and instances have been already quoted to show that the rule holds good *initially* as between Greek and Sanskrit. We may therefore conclude that the change of *gignomai* into *ginomai* is not a solitary instance, and that as a general rule *g* may be dropped, labialised or retained before a liquid as between Greek and Sanskrit whether at the beginning or in the body of a word. We might even discover further instances of the applicability of this rule; for, if *takra* is thus correctly identified with *turos*, we may, on the same principle, identify Sk. *agra* with Gk. *oros*, meaning top summit. It was impossible to represent Sanskrit *agra* by a separate Greek word otherwise. It could not be represented by *agros* in Greek as the latter word corresponded to Sk. *ajra*, a field ; nor can *agra* be changed to *akris* which represented Sk. *ashri*. Sanskrit *agra*, therefore, naturally came to be represented by *oros*. *Oros*, meaning top or summit, has not yet been satisfactorily derived in any other way.