Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.910

v1.c3.s21.910

² As derived from *pā*, ‘protect.’ But, as Böhtlingk and Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, *s.v. Mātar*, footnote, suggest, *pa* and *mā* were probably the much older original onomatopoetic names for ‘father’ and ‘mother,’ which in a later reflective age influenced the formation of *pitṛ* and *mātṛ* (which themselves go back to the Indo-European period).