TWO OLD PERSIAN

1. Kambaujiya-, c. “Intrepidus” Both the etymology and the meaning of the proper borne by two Achaemenian rulers of the 6th century BC and rendered in Greek as Kambuses are still being discussed by scholars. The spellings of the Achaemenian inscriptions: Old Persian k-b-u-ji-i-y, Elamite kán-bu-zi- ia, Akkadian kam-bu-zi-ia/ka-am-bu-zi-ia, allow several readings. The most widely accepted among them is Kambujiya-, which has been endorsed by Bartholomae1 and Kent2, but neither Kambujiya- with scrip- tio plena, nor Kambaujiya- is impossible. As pointed out by Harmatta3 and Mayrhofer4 the reading with -auj- cannot be excluded on the testi- mony of foreign renderings of this Old Persian name. The Greek form Amurgioi representing haumavarga- shows that Greek -u- could stand for Old Persian -au(a)-, and Elamite ha-ku-pi-zi-ya, Akkadian a-ku-pi-i- is representing Old Persian Akaufaciya (spelling: a-k-u-f-c-i-y) testify that also these languages’ spellings -Cu- were used for rendering the Old Persian diphtong -(C)au-. These various reading possibilities combined with several views on the structure of this apparent compound resulted in numerous etymolog- ical proposals none of which, however, has been generally accepted. Bartholomae (l.c.) after having rejected earlier proposals based on the analysis kam- + baog- hesitantly explained the discussed name as a bahuvrihi compound *kanbu + jiya, “mit Sehnen aus -?-”, and this etymology is still supported by Werba5. In the meantime Bailey returned to the pre-Bartholomaean view that the first element of the word in question represents the Old Indian kam- “to wish”, while the second is

1 Chr. BARTHOLOMAE, Altiranisches Wörterbuch (= AIW), Strassburg 1904, col. 436f. 2 R.G. KENT, Old Persian, New Haven 21953, p. 173f. 3 J. HARMATTA, The Rise of the Old Persian Empire. Cyrus the Great. Acta Antiqua Ac. Sc. Hung. 19 (1971), p. 3-15. 4 M. MAYRHOFER, Überlegungen zur Entstehung der altpersischen Keilschrift, BSOAS 42 (1979), p. 290-296. 5 C. WERBA, Zu einigen offenen Fragen der achaemenidischen Onomastik. Anzeiger der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Kl. 116 (1979), p. 13ff. 74 W. SKALMOWSKI a counterpart of the Old Indian *bhojiya- derived from bhoja-, “ruler”. In his opinion the name means “ruling at will” and thus forms a parallel to Avestan vaso.xsaqra- (s. C.E. Bosworth, ed., and Islam, Edin- burgh 1971, p. 65-71). Another solution has been offered by Harmatta (l.c.) who linked the name ‘Cambyses’ with the Old Indian ethno- and/or toponymic appella- tion kamboja-. His view may be summarized as follows: the Indian term consists of *kamb(a)-, “little”, and *aujas-, “strength”; the resulting adjective “of little strength = weak” must have been a derisory Aryan description of a foreign hostile tribe; the apotropaic *kamb-auj-ia, “of Kamboja origin”, lost in due course its pejorative meaning and was used as a proper name. Weak points of all these proposals are easily seen and have been abundantly discussed in the pertinent literature6. Let us peruse here the most important ones. While Bartholomae’s suggestion leaves the first part of the compound unexplained, Bailey’s and his predecessors’ etymological attempts overlook the fact that nominal derivations of kam- regularly feature the long vowel, cf. Old Indian kama-, “desire”, kamakara-, “voluntary action”, etc. Harmatta’s explanation is unsatis- factory for two reasons. Firstly, if the initial part of the compound actually meant “little”, one should rather expect the form kamna-, attested both in Old Persian and Avestan. Secondly, the lingering meaning “weak” appears particularly inappropriate for a name of a Persian of ruling , especially when compared with the observation of Herodotus (I, 139) that Persian names “agree with their [bearers’] qualities and noble origin”. On the other hand, however, the connection established by Harmatta between the second part of the discussed name, -aujiya-, and the Indo-Iranian term for “strength”, Avestan aojah-, Old Indian ojas-, is in this author’s view correct and fruitful. The new etymology of the name ‘Cambyses’ which this note intends to propose is based on a similar analysis of that word. This author believes that the Old Persian form Kambaujiya- might be regarded as an adjective which has evolved through sandhi and shifting to a-declension from an original compound *kamp + auj-ias-, meaning c. “unshaken, intrepid”, lit. “stronger than trembling”. Both elements of

6 M. MAYRHOFER, Iranisches Personennamenbuch I, 2 (= Die altpersischen Namen), Wien 1979, p. II/23 (Nr. 38). TWO OLD PERSIAN NAMES 75 this supposed etymon are well represented in Sanskrit, cf. kampate, “he trembles”, kampa- m., “trembling”, niÒkamp- a., “not trembling, unshaken, immovable”, and ojiya(n)s- (comparative), “stronger or mightier than”. While no direct counterpart of Old Indian kamp- is attested in Old Iranian, its trace seems to survive in the Old Persian and Avestan adjective kamna-, “little, few”, which probably meant origi- nally c. “negligible” (lit. “shaken (off)/rejected”), and had developed from *kamp-na- > *kamb-na-, as attested by Avestan kambist¢m, “least, minime” and Sogdian comparative kmbyy. On the other hand, the root *auj- is well represented in Avestan by numerous forms which also include the comparative aojyah-, “stronger than”, although only its feminine aojyehi- actually appears7. The shifting of the postulated Old Persian *Kambaujiyah- (< *Kamp +auj-yah-) to a-declension may have been facilitated by the fact that the most common form of the Old Persian adjectives was that with the suffix -ia- and additionally by the circumstance that the nom. sg. forms of both -ah- and -a- stems were identical. That a tendency towards such a simplification actually existed in Old Persian testifies the acc. sg. form Ahuramazdam instead of the expected *-daham8; symptomatically it occurs in a proper name.

2. Martiya-, c. “Notabilis”. A Persian rebel against Darius, mentioned four times in the Bihistun Inscription (DB 2.8, 2. 12-13, 4.15 and DBf 1) bore the name Martiya- (Old Persian m-r-t-i-y, Elamite mar-ti-ia, Akkadian mar-ti-ia)9. Both the spelling and the inflection (acc. sg. in DB 2. 12-13) show that this proper name is identical with the Old Persian common substantive martiya- “man”, generally held for a derivative from the Aryan root *m®-, “to die”, and thus essentially meaning “(a) mortal (being)”. However, since this sense can hardly be regarded as an auspicious appellation for individuals (in proper names) or as a particularly revealing generic term for human males (women and animals being mortal as well) one is entitled to ask whether the accepted etymology of this word is really correct.

7 AIW, col. 41. 8 KENT, op. cit. § 185, IV. 9 s. KENT, op. cit. p. 203 and MAYRHOFER, op. cit. p. II/25 (Nr 41). 76 W. SKALMOWSKI

In this author’s view the discussed Iranian word — apparently an adjective on -ia- — might have been in fact derived from the well-known Aryan root *sm®- (Old Indian sm®-, smárati, sm®ta-, “to remember, recollect; hand down, record”10; Avestan 2mar-, mara-, hismar-, past part. m¢r¢ta-/mar¢ta, “merken”11; New Persian somordan, somar-, “to count, recon”12; etc.) and used for conveying a notion similar to such Latin derivatives from IE *gno- as nobilis and notabilis. As for the derivational history of the supposed Iranian form *(h)martia- two different possibilities may be taken into account: (1) a part. fut. pass. on -ata- (plus the adjectival -ia-) with an irregular shortening *(h)mar-(a)ta-, and (2) an -ia- derivation from the past participle *(h)m®-ta- (with a regular development *mar-ta- in Old Persian and an irregular (analogy influenced?) one in Avestan). The first pattern is tacitly assumed by the adherents of the “moriturus/ mortalis”-etymology, the Old Indian mártya-, “(adj.) mortal; (subst. m.) man” serving as a strong support for their case. The same pattern, however, could also justify the (admittedly not recorded) form *smartya- which would correspond semantically to the actual Old Indian adjectives smartavya- and smara∞iya-, “to be remembered”13. The sense of this hypothetical but possible form would be close to Latin (g)nobilis and New Persian somordani or be-somar-gereftaní (cf. the expression be somar gereftan, “to take into consideration”). Thus the word in question might have originally referred to the members of the higher strata of society and become later generalized as a polite substitute for the com- mon noun nar-, still generally used for “man” in Avestan. A second possibility — an -ia- derivation from the past part. corresponding to Old Indian sm®ta- — may also be envisaged; as for the development of the -rt- group in Avestan cf. ¢r¢ta- vs. asa- . In this case the word in question would semantically resemble Latin (g)notabilis, New Persian somorde-yí, be-somar-gerefte-yí, c. “(belonging to [a group of people]) taken into consideration”. This derivational pattern seems preferable for formal reasons, because it explains better the group -rt-. While it is true that the Indian adjective martya-, “mortal”, is in fact occasionally applied in the sense of “man”, this usage seems to have

10 C. CAPPELLER, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Strassburg 1891, p. 647. 11 AIW, col. 1142ff 12 F. STEINGASS, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, London 1892, p. 759. 13 CAPPELLER, l.c. TWO OLD PERSIAN NAMES 77 originated in poetry (like mortalis in Latin), the current terms for “man” being manu-, manuÒa and manuÒyu, all words derived most probably from the root man- “to think, consider (as)”14. The continuations of these forms are as widespread in Modern Indian languages (cf. Hindi manuÒya-) as those of the Old Persian martiya- in Modern Iranian. Thus an assumption that both these closely related groups of languages used as a normal description of “man” a positively marked notion of an “(object of) consideration/regard” seems more plausible than the idea that one of them — the Iranian — preferred to stress in common usage the darker side of the human condition. The Old Persian proper name Martiya- adds certain weight to this reasoning, since it is indeed difficult to imagine parents endowing their son with a name meaning in essence “moribund”.

Kruisdagenlaan 103 W. SKALMOWSKI B-1200 Brussel

14 s. M. MAYRHOFER, Kurzgefaßtes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen, vol. II, Heidelberg 1963, p. 575f, for literature on (and discussion about) this etymology.