LOANWORDS IN SANSKRIT 387 millenium or over in time. Fortunately the differences be- tween the various Dravidian languages are not so great as to render dubious the reconstruction of the primitive form of the language and the form of words met with in the loanwords in Sanskrit does not differ materially from that which is arrived at by the comparative study of the existing Dravidian languages. It is a characteristic of the Dravidian languages that they have not evolved with the same rapidity as lndo- Aryan, and con- sequently the classical Dravidian languages and even the minor spoken languages recorded only in modern times can be used profitably to trace the Dravidian origin of Sanskrit words which were borrowed before any of these languages are themselves recorded, and from other ancient Dravidian dialects which have themselves disappeared. §2. Loanwords from Greek and Iranian The Sanskrit vocabulary acquired a limited number of Greek words, partly as a result of the rule of the Bactrian Greeks in North-West India in the second and first centuries B.C., and partly through contacts in respect of trade, etc. with the Graeco-Roman world. Words that can be ascribed to the Bactrian Greeks are khalina- ' bridle ’ (yaAlvo?), surungd 1 underground passage ' (avpiyg) and pari stoma- ‘ coverlet, blanket' (neplcnpwpa), and possibly kunla- 4 lance ' ( kovtos ). The Sanskrit lexica have preserved a word kenika 1 tent 1 which can be explained as a Prakritic adaptation of Gk. uKi^vip In common with other Hellenistic rulers the Greeks of Bactria and India adopted the title * saviour ' (rendered tratara- in their coins). This title, not in its precise sense, but as an honorific epithet gained currency in the local Prakrits as sottra-jsodira-, and thence was adapted into Sanskrit as sautira- * hero, noble and generous man Other words of Greek origin are better accounted for as having been acquired through trade, etc., e.g. kastira- ‘ tin ' ( KaaoiTepos ) meld ‘ ink * (fieAav), marakata- c emerald ’ (/xapaySos, opapayhos) kimpala- 'kind of musical instrument' (KvpfioAov) . Some words of Greek origin which only appear very late in Sanskrit have probably been taken in the first place from some intermediate language, e.g. kalama- ' pen ’ (xraAa/xo?) dramma- ‘ a coin ' (Spay/x^). The word kramelaka- * camel ' (kci/x^Ao?) is also late, and disguised by popular etymology (as if from kram-).
