IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
ASAFOETIDA 361
In regard to the modern employment of the article, S. W. WILLIAMSI writes, " It is brought from Bombay at the rate of $15 a picul, and ranks high in the Materia Medica of the Chinese physician; it is exhibited in cholera, in syphilitic complaints and worms, and often forms an ingredient in the pills advertised to cure opium-smokers." It is chiefly believed, however, to assist in the digestion of meat and to correct the poison of stale meats (ptomaine poisoning), mushrooms, and herbs.2 In Annam it is carried in small bags as a preventive of cholera.'
The following ancient terms for asafoetida are on record.—
(I) Persian A Al a-yü-tsie, *a-i'ü-zet =Middle Persian *anguzad; New Persian angü a, angugad, anguyân, anguwdn, angudan, angi.tak (stem angu -f -gad = "gum "4) ; Armenian ankugad, anjidan, Old Armenian angugat, anggat; Arabic anjudén. GARCIA gives anjuden or angeidan as name of the tree from which asa is extracted.
Sanskrit 5411hin-kü, *hii'-gu; 1g= _s
hin-yü, *hin-nü;
;sibs-lea, *hün-gü; corresponding to Sanskrit hingu. In my opinion, the Sanskrit word is an ancient loan from Iranian.5 GARCIA gives imgo or imgara as Indian name, and forms with initial i appear in Indian vernaculars: cf. Telugu inguva; cf., further, Japanese ingu, Malayan angu (according to J. BoNTIUS, who wrote in 1658, the Javanese and Malayans have also the word hin) .
ß7 VI a-wei, *a-nwai; " A (in the Nirvâna-sûtra) yan-kwei, *ai'-kwai, correspond to an Indian or Iranian vernacular form of the type *ankwa or *ankwai, that we meet in Tokharian B or Kuca ankwa.6 This form is obviously based on Iranian angu, angora.
Mongol Oa' â iie xa-si-ni (thus given as a Mongol term in the Pen tstao kan mu after the Yin an den yao of the Mongol period, written in 1331), corresponds to Persian kasni, kisni, or gisni ("asafoetida"), derived from the name of Gazni or Gazna, the capital of Zabulistan, which, according to Haan Tsai', was the habitat of the plant. A Mongol word of this type is not listed in the Mongol dictionaries of Kovalevski and Golstunski, but doubtless existed in the age of the Yuan,
1 Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 80.
2 STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 174.
3 PERROT and HURRIER, Mat. méd. et pharmacopée sino-annamites, p. 161.
4 Cf. Sanskrit jatuka (literally, "gum, lac") = asafoetida. HÜBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 98.
5 D'HERBELOT (Bibliothèque orientale, Vol. I, p. 226; Vol. II, p. 327) derived the Persian word (written by him angiu, engiu, ingu; Arabic ingiu, ingudan) from Indian henk and hengu, ingu, for the reason that in India this drug is principally used; this certainly is not correct.
6 Cf. T'oung Pao, 1915, pp. 274-275.
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