Dear All: In Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda, we have the following verse:
dahet suvarṇaṁ hi dhamann akāle jale kṣipan saṁśamayed akāle / na cāpi samyak paripākam enaṁ nayed akāle samupekṣamāṇaḥ // 16.66 // The problem verb is saṃśamayet. Covill translates: "make it cool down”; and Johnston: “bring it to maturity.” My feeling is that the term has a technical meaning within the metallurgic tradition. Someone suggested “make it brittle”, which is tempting, but I do not know that the Sanskrit term has this meaning. Any help from those of you better versed in ancient Indian metallurgy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Patrick Olivelle _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected] https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
