🚀 go-pugleaf

bakula@my-dejanews.com (aka Sid Harth) writes:
>In article <hmccullo.44.362A3957@pop.service.ohio-state.edu>,
>  hmccullo@pop.service.ohio-state.edu (Hu McCulloch) wrote:
>> Sid Harth <gautamasidharth@malexcite.com> writes, concerning
>> my review of Shakti M. Gupta's 1996 book, _Plants in Indian Temple
>> Art_, which confirms the presence of  maize and 5 other
>> New World plants in Pre-Columbian Indian temple
>> sculptures,
>>
>> [Payak and Sachan had written, as quoted by Oscar Schlaf]
>> >> > >We hold that these temple sculptures
>> >> > >do not represent maize or its ear but an imaginary fruit bearing pearls
>known
>> >> > >in Sanskrit as "Muktaphala"
>> [I had replied]
>> >> > Muktaphala literally means "pearl-fruit".  My hunch here is that this was
>> >> > an an ancient word for maize.
>>
>> [Sid]:
>> >    Patently false. "muktaaphaLa," is another name for custard apple,
>"siitaaphaLa."
>>
>> Interesting. Is there a standard source for this?
>>
>> Custard apple is one of the other New World crops Gupta
>> finds in Pre-Columbian temple sculptures, so if this is what
>> is depicted, it would equally indicate some transoceanic
>> contacts.  Nevertheless, the sculptures Gupta and Johannessen
>> show look much more like maize than custard apple.
>> (see eg the one I link on my page,
>>   <http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/maize.html> )
>>
>> -- Hu McCulloch
>>    mcculloch.2@osu.edu
>>    http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/outliers.html
>>

>My dear Hu,

>I am not taking any side on this argument. I came late on the scene. Knowing
>Indian penchant for stretching the truth, knowing their scant regard for
>scientific endeavor, knowing their desire to place India on the map before any
>other country and other cultures, I would say that the claim of maize in these
>sculptures is as bogus as the claim  of DNA molecule finders.

>I have not senn and nobody in their sane mind can claim that they have seen a
>bell shaped maze, corn on the cob, a tear shaped corn on the cob. If it is
>not a maze, neither it can be proved as a custard apple, it is a stylezed
>sceptre, much decorated with rows of pearls. since these are the sculptures
>in south India, the land of natural pearl treasures, my guess is that they
>are just that. Pearl encrusted sceptures, sympols of power. The indian
>counterpart of maze is "bajraa," millets which has a distinct shape, not as
>pronounced as the sculptural rendition but surely matching in the
>characteristics. Bajra, millet was not known in the north. It is a natural
>product of the south.

Whatever the sculptures are, I am very interested in your original claim
that "Muktaphala"  is a word for custard apple.  It doesn't appear in the 
now-defunct on-line Sanskrit dictionary, but an Indian student assures me 
that Mukta means pearl (not to be confused with Mukt, Mukti, liberation).
Phala does mean fruit.  Is there a standard reference for muktaphala meaning
custard apple?   

>Sid

-- Hu