Rajasthani
names 11objects 4ISO 639-3 raj
Spoken in Jaipur State, eastern Rajasthan (Macalister records the dialects of the Jeypore state; he tags Shekhawati, Khairar, Kathera and Dangi forms as such, and this headword carries no tag), Rajasthan generally (Lalas does not dialect-mark this headword).
vernacular 1 · folk 3 · borrowed 7
See the Rajasthani sky on the chart →
The sky in Rajasthani
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| तारौ tārau | 'Star' as a word | Lalas gives twelve synonyms at this headword — uḍagaṇa, graha, jota, jotakī, tārā, teja, dīpanabha, dhisana, nakhata, bhā, rikhabha, rūpamaṇi — of which dīpanabha ('lamp of the sky') and rūpamaṇi ('the silver jewel') are not Sanskrit star-words. Then six idioms, and the last four are a single technical usage: tārā mem, tārau asta hoṇau, tārau ūgaṇau and tārau lāgaṇau all concern the heliacal SETTING AND RISING OF JUPITER AND VENUS, the period between them being inauspicious for weddings and other auspicious work. In Rajasthani the bare word 'star' has come to mean that rule. The two ordinary idioms are tārā giṇaṇā, 'to count the stars', i.e. to suffer, and tārā toṛaṇā, 'to pluck stars', i.e. to attempt the impossible. | borrowed |
| गजबीथी gajabīthī | Orion | 'the elephant road' Lalas defines it as the group of Rohiṇī, Mṛgaśirā and Ārdrā considered as the road through the middle of which Venus travels. A separate headword, नक्षत्रवीथि nakṣatravīthi (p. 1983), sets out the whole scheme of nine vīthīs, three nakshatras each, and cites Devala and Kāśyapa by name as differing authorities. | borrowed |
| इल्वला ilvalā | Orion | Lalas defines it as the group of five stars that sits on the head of the Mṛgaśirā nakshatra. | borrowed |
| म्रिगसिरा mrigasirā | Orion | Lalas gives four further Rajasthani forms at the same headword — मरगसरा maragasarā, मिरगसरा miragasarā, म्रगसिर mragasira and म्रगसिरा mragasirā — and the rain-couplets under आदरा ādarā use the miragasarā form, so this is the shape the word has in actual proverb. | borrowed |
| आदरा ādarā | Orion | The entry is five weather-couplets and almost nothing else, which is the finding: wind in Ārdrā sets the huts rocking; rain in Ārdrā fills only the gullies while rain in Punarvasu fills the tanks; no rain in Ārdrā and no wind in Mṛgaśira means certain famine; not a drop in Kṛttikā and Ārdrā means famine and disorder; fierce heat in Rohiṇī with strong wind in Mṛgaśira means Ārdrā will thunder unasked. Three of the five invoke Bhaḍḍaḷī by name as the authority. A second form आदरियौ ādariyau on the same page carries a sixth: one rain in Ārdrā and the cultivator is content. | borrowed |
| किरति / किरतियाँ / किरती / किरतीयु kirati / kiratiyāṃ / kiratī / kiratīyu | The Pleiades | Lalas gives the four forms at one headword, glosses it as the third of the twenty-seven nakshatras, and adds that this asterism contains six stars. He attaches a line of the poet Revatdān in which the Kṛttikās laugh above the sky, and a Rajasthani weather-saying to the effect that a single flash of lightning in Kṛttikā means the year will not be a famine year. A further form किरत्यां kiratyāṃ on the same page cross-refers here and carries a folk-song line in which the sun sets in Kṛttikā; कीरतका kīratakā (p. 504) likewise cross-refers, dated by its verse to Phālguna of Saṃvat 1768. | borrowed |
| सातरसा sātarasā | The Pleiades | — | vernacular |
| दावौ dāvau | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | The cold-season wind off the same quarter, which Lalas spells out — 'from the place where the Saptarṣis set, that is, from between north and north-west' — and which, like okaṛa, is defined by the damage it does to the crop. He quotes a couplet from the Dasadeva in which the wind brands what it touches, and gives the variants दाऔ dāau and दाहौ dāhau. | folk |
| रिसिअस्त / रिखीअस्त / रिसीअस्त risiasta / rikhīasta / risīasta | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | 'the setting of the ṛṣis' A point of the compass defined by a constellation: Lalas glosses it as the direction between north and north-west, where the Saptarṣis set. Rajasthani then names three winds off that quarter — okaṛa, dāvau and sūrayau, entered separately below — so the constellation is doing real orientational work rather than surviving as a name only. | borrowed |
| सूरयौ sūrayau | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | The third wind off the Saptarṣi quarter and the only welcome one: blowing in Śrāvaṇa it is read as a sign of rain. Lalas supports it with a couplet from a Varṣā-vijñāna (rain-lore) text, in which the sūrayau blowing means thunder within the hour, and with a folk song addressed to the wind by name asking it to bring the clouds. Variants सूरियौ sūriyau, सूर्यौ sūryau. | folk |
| ओकड़ ōkaṛa | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | Defined by Lalas purely by the sky and by the harm it does: the wind that comes from the quarter where the Saptarṣis set, and that damages the standing crop. | folk |
Sources
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. तारौ, p. 1506 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. गजबीथी, p. 670 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. इल्वला, p. 250 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. म्रिगसिरा, p. 3945 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. आदरा, p. 201 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. किरति, किरतियाँ, किरती, किरतीयु, p. 495 link
- George Macalister, A Dictionary of the Dialects Spoken in the State of Jeypore, 1st ed. (Allahabad: Allahabad Mission Press, 1898), s.v. सातरसा, p. 30 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. दावौ, p. 1714 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. रिसिअस्त, p. 4178 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. सूरयौ, p. 5785 link
- Sītārāṃma Lāḷasa, Rājasthānī Sabada Kośa, 2nd ed. (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Śodha Saṃsthāna, Caupāsanī, 2013), s.v. ओकड़, p. 358 link