tribe called ;Svasa

[Peter Wyzlic]

On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 01:59:21PM +0200, Arlo Griffiths wrote:

> On p. 54 of his "India as Known to Paa.nini" (2nd ed.), Agrawala
> states that "[the] Divyaavadaana refers to the ;Svasas in Uttaraapatha
> with headquarters at Taksha;silaa to which A;soka was deputed by his
> father Bindusaara as Viceroy to quell their rebellion" and suggests
> that the same name may be connected with the name of the ;Sibis.
> In neither the GRETIL electronic text (input by Kensuke Okamoto
> based on the Vaidya ed.) nor in the two indexes of the Cowell/Neil
> ed. have I found a trace of these ;Svasas. Can somebody who is
> better versed in this field of literature (and more familiar with
> the available research tools) perhaps set me on the right track
> towards verification of Agrawala's statement?

See F. Edgerton: Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. Vol.
2: dictionary, p. 616a, s.v. Sva;sa
"n. of a people living about Taxila: Sva;sar-ajya.m Divy 372.11; surely
graphic corruption for Skt. Kha;sa or Kha.sa"

Edgerton refers to a passage in the Pamsupradanavadana which is a part
of the Asoka cycle. For references to the ethnic group called Kha;sa,
see, e.g., Soerensen's index of names in the Mahabharata, s.v. Kha,ca
[,c is c with cedille].

Hope it helps
Peter Wyzlic