Saturday, February 28, 2009

amhas

Searching for the roots of (my) anger-anguish-angst, I learn that these words, along with angina, have their source in the proto Indo-European angh, which means tight or painfully constricted.

Sharing this root is the sanskrRt amhas, which has been variously interpreted as distress, narrowness, oppression, and evil; and is considered one of the Vedic sins, along with pApa, Enas and agha.

Lacking recourse to a mitra or a varuNa to assuage my amhas, I take up the veena for a midnight session of varalakShmIm bhaja rE rE and kShitijAramaNam chintayE, in hopes that nikhilAghabhanjanI and aghaharaNa will intercede.