1887.] Nilmani Mukcrjca— On Ekotibhava. 179 



is about the same as concentration, or bringing the mind to one centre. 

 The Tibetans may have current among them a different meaning, but in 

 an enquiry about the radical meaning of a Sanskrit term found in 

 Sanskrit works, we are not concerned with any possible change which 

 it may have undergone in the language of a non-Sanskritic nation.' 



Professor Nilmani Mukerjea said — Ekotibhava is a kind of medi- 

 tation in a Buddhistic sense, meaning literally absorption into one. It 

 also means, according to Tibetan writers, the apostolic succession, so 

 to speak, of grand Lamas. The succession of Lamas is compared to a 

 garland of flowers ; and one who succeeds to the musnud of the High 

 Priest in Tibet, is looked upon as a new flower strung into the garland 

 of lamahood. 



Prof. Max Miiller analyses the word into eka, koti, and bhava. 

 Though no known rule of grammar is cited to justify the elision of ka, 

 and though the attempts of Mr. Growse to explain the same by rules of 

 Prakrita grammar are unsatisfactory, there are instances in Sanskrit in 

 which such elisions of intermediate syllables are admitted as anomalies 

 (nipatas) by Sanskrit grammarians. I would cite a few instances only — 

 Prishat-udara Prishodara, Patat-anjali Patanjali, Vari-vahaka Valahaka, 

 Jivana-muta Jimuta, &c, &c. 



According to the etymology given by Prof. Max Miiller, ekoti- 

 bhava may mean a kind of meditation ; but it can scarcely be strained 

 to mean the unbroken succession of grand Lamas, in which sense the 

 word is understood by Tibetan authors. 



Dr. Rajendralala Mitra has given a less anomalous, though not 

 quite a correct derivation of the word, dividing it into eka, uti and 

 bhava. Now the component parts of the word as stated by the learned 

 doctor, meaning respectively ' one,' " weaving " and "being " cannot be 

 compounded by any known rule of Sanskrit grammar, inasmuch as 

 uti and bhava are both verbal nouns,* and cannot satisfy the first and 

 most important rule of Sanskrit composition (samasa)f . 



According to Dr. Mitra's etymology the word would mean " being 

 weaving into one," which is not intelligible enough. I have therefore 

 thought fit to adopt the reading " ekotibhava " with a long i recom- 

 mended by my friend, Babu Sarat Chandra Das, C. I. E. The above 

 reading occurs twice in a dictionary of Sanskrit words by a Tibetan 



* At the last meeting of the A. S. B., Dr. Mitra, while admitting that uti comes 

 from a verbal root and a verbal affix, denied that it is a verbal noun, and saw no 

 objection to its being compounded with another verbal noun. 



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