Deva

[Kalidas]

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. The term Deva in Hinduism is masculine YET in many Western civilizations the word Deva has been transformed to mean a woman. Generally a beautiful and not very nice woman. Where did this change in terminology come from? Does it ever bother you seeing some woman called a Deva and your just thinking "The term is Devi, which you are not one!"

 

[ShivaFan]

Namaste

Sanskrit is the original language. There are vestiges of it even in Euro languages. In Lithuania, there are so many Sanskrit words still in Sanskrit itself it is not funny.

Divine (Divi) means "of Devi" or about Devas and Devi.

"Iron" comes from Aryan.

Om Namah Sivaya

 

[Sumit]

Hindu/hinduism is actually a Persian word and not Indian. When the muslims arrived in India they called Indians as Hindus. The world hindus can also be found in Arabic and Urdhu dictionary. In ancient time hindu religion was called Vedic Dharma and Hindus were called Arya [arya means noble].

Edit... Sorry I misread post, I thought you wrote Hindu as masculine

 

[Kalidas]

Hindu/hinduism is actually a Persian word and not Indian. When the muslims arrived in India they called Indians as Hindus. The world hindus can also be found in Arabic and Urdhu dictionary. In ancient time hindu religion was called Vedic Dharma and Hindus were called Arya [arya means noble].

I thought the term "Hindu" came from the English? i know it's not the "technical" term but it's the one used mostly today to describe

 

[Poeticus]

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. The term Deva in Hinduism is masculine YET in many Western civilizations the word Deva has been transformed to mean a woman. Generally a beautiful and not very nice woman. Where did this change in terminology come from? Does it ever bother you seeing some woman called a Deva and your just thinking "The term is Devi, which you are not one!"

Lemaster, are you talking about the term, "Diva"?

 

[Kalidas]

Lemaster, are you talking about the term, "Diva"?

Yes. Maybe their both totally unrelated words, but they seem some how related to me

 

[Poeticus]

Yes. Maybe their both totally unrelated words, but they seem some how related to me

Well, Indo-European-wise..they are related (most likely), for Diva comes from Latin; "Diva" means Goddess. Devi comes from Sanskrit (and Deva also).

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram lemaster ji:namaste

I thought the term "Hindu" came from the English? i know it's not the "technical" term but it's the one used mostly today to describe

no , no ,the use of hindu came from ancient persia long before the arival of the british ,

'Hindustan' being the land beyond the sindu river and the people who lived there 'Hindu'.it came into common use with the arival of the mogul dynasty and thus became addopted as a title for the indiginous peoples of what we now know as india which makes some angry , my guru insists that we usethe correct name ' Bharat '.

consider the use in titles such as 'The MahaBharata' ... the Great war of the bharata peeople , ....


you will also see it still widely used in india especialy amongst political circles .

 

[Poeticus]

namaskaram lemaster ji:namaste



no , no ,the use of hindu came from ancient persia long before the arival of the british ,

'Hindustan' being the land beyond the sindu river and the people who lived there 'Hindu'.it came into common use with the arival of the mogul dynasty and thus became addopted as a title for the indiginous peoples of what we now know as india which makes some angry , my guru insists that we usethe correct name ' Bharat '.

consider the use in titles such as 'The MahaBharata' ... the Great war of the bharata peeople , ....


you will also see it still widely used in india especialy amongst political circles .

Namaste, Bhaginī-ji:

I have two foster mothers. Bharati (India) and Prithvi (Earth). They spoil me rotten. One spoils me with beautiful Gujarati girls and the other spoils me with life.

M.V.

 

[ratikala]

Yes. Maybe their both totally unrelated words, but they seem some how related to me

Divya is comonly used as a female name , I wonder if there is some confusion in understanding between deva and divya , deva meaning god devi being the female form and divya meaning , ....beautifull , delightfull , divine , heavenly , wonderous , ....

 

[ratikala]

Namaste, Bhaginī-ji:

I have two foster mothers. Bharati (India) and Prithvi (Earth). They spoil me rotten. One spoils me with beautiful Gujarati girls and the other spoils me with life.

M.V.

jai jai maitra varuni ji :namaste,..... then I am sure you thank bhumidevi with salutations :namaste

but also I hope you honour her by never abusing her gifts :namaste

 

[Poeticus]

jai jai maitra varuni ji :namaste,..... then I am sure you thank bhumidevi with salutations :namaste

but also I hope you honour her by never abusing her gifts :namaste

Abusing gifts? How?!?!?! I read all day and am on the computer all day. Well, it's the summer and classes don't start until September - so yeah, I am on the computer all day.

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram maitra varuni ji :namaste

Abusing gifts? How?!?!?! I read all day and am on the computer all day. Well, it's the summer and classes don't start until September - so yeah, I am on the computer all day.

Ah , ....even still depends what you are thinking when you are on the computer , ....

but then you are absorbing your self in shastra , this is good , ......on the computer you are discussing shastra , this is good , .... so what will you study in september ?

 

[Poeticus]

what will you study in september ?

Communication studies, homieeee. Chyeahhh. Hehe.

 

[Jainarayan]

OK, here we go again. I'm putting on my **** storm-resistant HAZMAT suit.

Hindu is the Old Persian pronunciation of Sindhu, using a regular sound shift from 's' in Sanskrit to 'h' in Old Persian. It is NOT, I repeat, IT IS NOT a corruption by Arabs, Greeks, Muslims, Alpha Centauriani, Zeta Reticuliani. It is one of thousands of regular sound changes that occur in all languages from the Inuit languages to Japanese to Papua New Guinean languages.

Sindhu = hindu; sapta = hapta; saptasindhu (seven rivers) = haptahindu; saraswati = ha(i)rovati. And no, as someone tried to punk me on HDF, because of this Persia would not be Perhia; Persia is a Greek word. We get India from Latin Indus via Greek Indoi. Greek drops the initali 'h' aspiration in some instances (hellenic in English, elliniki in Greek), and uses -oi or -1 as a masculine or neuter plural nominative. That's how we get 'India'.

Anyway, 'deva' being a masc. sing. nominative is an -a stem word because the bulk of PIE m.s.n. nouns that ended in -o became -a stem words and is the largest class of nouns. That's why so many m.s.n. nouns in Sanskrit end in -a. The feminine singular nominative ends in -i and has not changed from PIE.

Why Sanskrit changed -o stem m.s.n. to -a is a mystery to me, considering that many other IE languages preserved the -o stem for masc. sing. nom. Yet the feminine changed to -a or -e stems in those languages or remained -i.

But that's not the end of it in Sanskrit... consider 'devomaheshvara' ("guru brahmā guru vishnu guru devomaheshvara...". Deva + mahā + ishvara = devo + mah(e)shvara due to sandhi. Sandhi can really play with your head. Btw, sandhi is the term used for the sound changes between words in any language... a(n)apple, a(n)orange, a bat is an example of sandhi in English. Della donna stupida in Italian (of the stupid woman or the stupid woman's) from di + la donna stupida... Italian sandhi from remnant Latin inflection.

End of lingusitic pedantry. :run:

 

[Jainarayan]

Namaste

Sanskrit is the original language. There are vestiges of it even in Euro languages. In Lithuania, there are so many Sanskrit words still in Sanskrit itself it is not funny.

Lithuanian is the closest of the IE languages to the original (proposed) PIE ancestor. Lithuanian has at least 14 nominal cases which is pretty much what PIE had. Lithuanian is as close as you can get to what PIE was probably like. Corutesy historical comparative linguistics.

"Iron" comes from Aryan.

Om Namah Sivaya

As does 'Iran' (ee-rahn). It annoys me no end when people pronounce aryan as 'air-ee-an". At least try to get close with 'ahr-yun'.

 

[Kalidas]

Divya is comonly used as a female name , I wonder if there is some confusion in understanding between deva and divya , deva meaning god devi being the female form and divya meaning , ....beautifull , delightfull , divine , heavenly , wonderous , ....

It probably is a a misunderstanding on my part. Sorry. Ignore me I am being weird

 

[Kalidas]

Lithuanian is the closest of the IE languages to the original (proposed) PIE ancestor. Lithuanian has at least 14 nominal cases which is pretty much what PIE had. Lithuanian is as close as you can get to what PIE was probably like. Corutesy historical comparative linguistics.



As does 'Iran' (ee-rahn). It annoys me no end when people pronounce aryan as 'air-ee-an". At least try to get close with 'ahr-yun'.

I never thought it was air-ee-an. Their not nazis!

 

[Jainarayan]

I never thought it was air-ee-an. Their not nazis!

I hear it pronounced that way all the time. Drives me nutz. Hitler co-opted 'aryan' as well as the swastika. Gods forbid you display a swastika. You'll be hanged as a neo-nazi. I would be beaten for sure being as light as I am, with a shaved head.

 

[Vinayaka]

I hear it pronounced that way all the time. Drives me nutz. Hitler co-opted 'aryan' as well as the swastika. Gods forbid you display a swastika. You'll be hanged as a neo-nazi. I would be beaten for sure being as light as I am, with a shaved head.

Oh, it gets worse.