B E D O L A C H

     M.L. Glikman , Israel                                                         18/03/2015

Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922), “the father of modern Hebrew” suggested that the word bedolach בדלח can be seen as a two root word consisting of the roots badal בדל and dalach דלח.  The noun badal בדל means “tip, part”, while the verb badal means “to separate”.  It is believed that the word bdil (bedil) בדיל meaning “tin” (stannum) is also derived from the first root. 

The second root dalach is associated with words meaning “muddy” – daluach דלוח, “water pollution” delicha דליחה, etc.  In Akkadian dalahu also means “water pollution”, while in Tibetan driha means “urine”.

     In literature we find various transliterations of the word bedolach: bdolach, bedolach, bdolah.  J.B. Obry (1858) even writes it as “bedoulakh” possibly hinting at Sanskrit.  A book “Die Indischen Mineralen” by R. Garbe was published in 1882.  In the chapter “Gelber, Arsenik, Auripigment” we read that one of the names of Auripigment is “bidlAka” (page 48).  This word can be found almost in all Sanskrit dictionaries.  It should be noted that in Sanskrit this mineral has only (!) 50 different names (according to the Spoken Sanskrit dictionary), but the word “haritAla” is most commonly used in the Indian literature (Vaidia Bhagvan Dash, 2001, etc.).

     While continuing with the “Sanskrit direction” of our research we discovered certain “imitation” of Hebrew.  In Sanskrit the noun dala means “part, portion, piece”, the verb dal – “to explode”, the noun bidal (sf. vidal) – “to burst, crack, be produced by splitting”.  The word vidala means “separating, fragment”.  We would like to emphasize that the Hebrew word badal בדל and the Sanskrit word vidala have the same semantic meaning “to separate, separating”.

    And now, a bit of grammar.   The letters “b” and “v” in Sanskrit are interchangeable in certain cases.  Thus, V.B. Dash (2001) writes the name of Auripigment as “vidAlaka” (see “Alchemy and Metallic Medicines in Ayurveda, page 136).  The suffix “ka” in the end of the word sometimes does not change its original meaning and sometimes lends it a diminutive or even pejorative tone.  (V.A. Kochergina “Sanskrit-Russian Dictionary”, M. 1996, pages 920-921).  For example, the word vidAra means “the act of tearing, splitting”, while vidAraka means “the one who tears”; the word biDAla means “cat”, biDAlaka means “little cat” and biDAlika – “female cat” (see ibid. pages 466, 489).

   At this stage we can only speculate that the word bidAlaka meaning “Auripigment, Orpiment” was formed by adding the suffix “ka” to the words bidal, vidal or vidala.  In the literature available to us such a theory has not been found.

   Conclusion: BEDOLACH = bidAlaka = ORPIMENT, AURIPIGMENT

     Discussion.  The experts studying Sanskrit usually agree that the meaning of the word “saniSkRta” is “good atonement or expiation”, “treated, brought to perfection” (V.A. Kochergina, 1996).  Sanskrit is possibly the richest language when it comes to the number of synonyms for each word.  Some Sanskrit words with similar pronunciation and meaning can be found in many languages of the world.  For example, the word “part” in Latvian is dala, “amber” is dzintars, which sounds similar to the Sanskrit yantra meaning “amulet” and yantraNa meaning “protecting”.  The Sumerian word LUH-HA means “to wash, clean”, URUDU.LUH-HA - purified copper, KU.LUH-HA - purified silver and PAD.LUH-Ha – pieces of silver.  The Sanskrit  word Loha meaning “metal, copper, iron” (see Vibha Tripathi “Archaeometallurgy in India”, 1998, page 141) came from the root Luh, which in Sanskrit means “removing, pulling, drawing, attracting”.  E. Renan in his monograph “Histoire generale et systeme compare des langues semitiques” (1858) gives many such examples (see pages 205-206).  Perhaps, Sanskrit absorbed words from several ancient languages.  However, it was not a loan, but rather storage and safekeeping.  That is why one can find similarities with some Hebrew words that had been forgotten by the native speakers but had kept their original meaning in Sanskrit.  The Sanskrit word yaTa means “sulfur”.  In an alchemic tractate (J.J. Mangeti, 1612) the trinary from the Land of Haviah: gold, bedolach and the shoham stone is compared to the three main alchemical substances respectively: mercury, sulfur (under the name of bdola) and salt.  According to our research, bedolach is not sulfur but rather its compound with arsenic.

   The Sanskrit word used both for bronze and brass is kAMsya, it has such synonyms as vahniloha, pitalauha, etc., while one of the Tibetan names is ba ta lo ha (V.B. Dash, 1994).

   

  We have not found any proof that the root dalach דלח is used in forming the word bedolach, even though the Auripigment power, which is poorly soluble in water, could make the water look muddy.  The words בדיל (stannum) and בדלח (Auripigment) have the same root in Hebrew.