In fact, there is nothing secret about the origin of the word "Tartary". The answer can be found in the most common dictionary. And that is why all these attempts to invent an etymology from the never existed "Tarkhov and Tar" become extremely incomprehensible.
From the dictionary
Sanskrit, word तर्तरीक [tartarian]. The Hindi dictionary hindimatlab.com defines it as “cross; moving across ". Another famous dictionary of modern Hindi - pustak.org - gives even more imaginative interpretations with the same meaning: “intersection, cross, pun; boat, carry, ferry. " Yes, a pun is a play on words, the intersection of their meanings or sounds, that is, the same cross. A boat, a ferry - these are all crossings, that is, crossing a river. And now the English-Sanskrit dictionary gives the same meaning - “boat; intersecting".
How did it happen that the word is, is displayed in the dictionaries, but no one looked at it? Seriously! I flipped through the Internet a lot to find at least somewhere this interpretation … did not find it. Actually, that's why I decided to write this article here.
Well, now let's take a look at any freshly drawn map of Tartaria:
What do we see? Tartary is the crossroads of the world: China with India, America, Europe, South Asia. That is, Tartary, it turns out, is a purely cartographic name. There is no question of any self-name here, and, therefore, "Tartaria" is not the name of any country or empire. Only geography …
But you can interpret this meaning even more prosaic. Who in our country constantly crosses the territory? Nomads! Moreover, both cattle breeders, both South and Asia Minor peoples, and Indian hunters, former Siberians. It is also suitable, and even with the official version it does not diverge a step at all. One nomadic camp beyond the Volga …
Promotional video:
Well, and the third version that I can offer is a connection with the Great Silk Road, which seemed to pass through the south of Tartary and became a city-forming one, because the trade route is long, resting places are needed, from which trading and parking points grew, which became settlements. It is the meaning of the Road, the path that is laid here in this root "Tar". Just like in familiar words: Tract, Track, Trans, Path, Trip, Travel, Trachea, etc.
Here we have a double "Tar", which should hint at the movement back and forth, apparently.
But the question is, why Sanskrit? Neither the Turkic dialect, nor the European (who drew all these cards), and not even Chinese, although the name of our relatives of the present Tatars, with whom we have lived side by side for many years, etymologists are trying to deduce from the Chinese 鞑靼 [dadan]. Wikipedia immediately reports that "the Chinese began to call all nomads of the eastern part of the Great Steppe Tatars (yes-tribute), regardless of their actual ethnicity", that is, that "dadan" (I can not read … and asks for "give tribute!") that "Tartarian" - everything was reduced to the nomads.
But still Sanskrit. Isn't it a matter of the Mughals, whose culture, at least outwardly, is similar to the Indian one. That is, the origins of the word should be sought somewhere in Pakistan, North India, Tibet, and maybe even in Uzbekistan. To be honest, I shoot a mosquito from a cannon, because, firstly, this is not my area of knowledge, and secondly, in those places it is difficult to expect pure Sanskrit, because Persian, Turkic, Chinese and Indian dialects in that area were constantly mixed, apparently, which complicates the search for the source. And thirdly, in this language cauldron, Sanskrit, so similar to North Russian, Greek, English, hurts the eye a little. Maybe a small tribe was its bearer, or maybe Sanskrit is also a kind of hodgepodge. Indeed, despite its obvious kinship with European languages, there are many words in it that are unlike anything else. The world knows Sanskrit only from Vedic poetry, and poetic language and everyday language are somewhat different categories.
So this is a real mystery, who among the geographers picked up this local word and used it so cleverly. Perhaps the local population called some frequently crossed territory that way, while European travelers have already stretched this name to "half the world" …
To be honest, it doesn't matter to me if there was an empire beyond the Volga or if there were nomads wandering there. Here I am only interested in the word "Tartar (ia)" and what it can teach.
Let's look at the main component of this तर्तरीक (by the way, there are already all the prerequisites to lose the letter "r" when rewriting and start to say "Tatars", because the first "r" is clearly not written here, but still there is, so you can easily confuse and not see the hidden “r.” If we take this as an argument, then it should be recognized that the name “Tatars” was given through written sources):
तार [tara] in modern Hindi means: "Thread, Wire, Yarn, Chorda, Earth (in Latin Terra), Fiber, String, Telegram, Telegraph". All words from one logical row are something conductive, transmitting.
And here is its wider spectrum in Sanskrit: “transition, preservation, protection, savior, good, clean, loud, piercing, road, transfer through or beyond, excellent, radiating, high, excellent, passage above or beyond, subjugation, radiant, hem of clothing, pupil, ship, boat, raft, ferry, expensive (in the sense of "beloved"), star (compare with English s-tar), asterism (Greek As-ter-os), kind of meteor, horse, transcend, pearl, fire, silver, descent to the river, embankment."
Let's figure out what is happening here, for this I will group similar words:
1 - crossing, transfer through or beyond, passage above or beyond, road - refer to the crossing of a terrain or border.
2 - a ship, boat, raft, ferry, horse - these are all means of crossing, that is, the same crossing
3 - loud, piercing, excellent, excelling - all this is the superlative degree of something. In the dictionary you can also find such a translation as "very tasty cooked", which also reflects the superlative degree.
4 - preservation, protection, savior - this is what protects from trouble, covers with itself, stands in the way of danger.
5 - a star - is always drawn in the form of diverging rays from one point, which is reflected in the translation "radiating, radiant". It is about the star shape that we are told by such a meaning as "the pupil of the eye".
6 - silver, fire, pearl, shining, pure - epithets of a star emitting light in different directions. By the way, the stars were used for navigation, which connects this point with 1 and 2
7 - high, embankment, descent to the river (that is, the bank) - here the meanings coincide with point 4 (as in the words “coast” and “guardian”) and 3 (above the rest, superiority). This probably also includes the “hem of the garment”.
8 - expensive - it either has the same meaning as the “shining pearls” from point 6, or the same superlative degree. But in general, it is extremely curious that in the Russian language "road" and "road" are the same roots.
9 - conquest is overcoming, dominance is superlative
Thus, the word "tara" everywhere gives us the meaning of "intersection", whether it is crossing, overcoming, getting in the way, superlative degree (overlaps everything else), radiance (going out of one point, like crossing directions)
तरिक [tarika] - "over, transportation of goods, ferryman"
In dictionaries that "tarika" and "tartarika" have the same meaning, but still I am for the fact that the root is repeated twice in a word for a reason and must clarify the meaning of this "crossing", and most likely it leads us either specifically to crossroads (two times "tar" as overlapping one by the other), or to back and forth movement (and not just transportation-crossing in one direction), or here the combination of these two meanings and then we get some kind of transport (from the word trans - movement, transmission through some space (Ushakov), transmission) denouement.
From scotland
The famous “traditional” clothing of the proud Scottish highlanders is a kilt made of fabric with the mysterious name “Tartan”. Actually, this is not a fabric, but an ornament is called that. And without thinking too much, the English etymologists decided to write this fabric in Tatar. Like, since "Tartan" means from "Tartars", referring to the Old French language, as if to say "What are we? We are niche! They are all French! They called it that! We can only use it. " Later they made a second attempt, realizing the stupidity of their assumption, and said: “No, not a Tatar ornament, but a Tyrian one! (Tire or Sur, Lebanon, former Phenicia) ".
But even this looks rather weak for the great British scientists, so someone threw a tiny rational grain, suggesting that perhaps the word Tartan comes from the Scottish (Gaelic) "tarsainn", which means "through (to cross), over". Of course, it was not the Scottish language that was rational here, but the meaning itself. Of course, this name comes from "intersection", and there is no need to invent any Tatar or Phoenician roots of the ornament.
That is, a "tartan" is not a "cell", but first of all "crossroads".
From Myths
And, of course, one cannot but touch upon the topic of the Greek Tartarus. There have always been comparisons of Tartary and Tartarus, and this became the official version. I will cite it here for completeness. From Wikipedia:
Although, you yourself understand that this is never an etymology, since the latter is designed to reveal the origin of the word; and to say that "Tartary" is a mixture of "Tatars" and "Tartarus", without explaining either one or the other, is only to confuse traces. So anything can be related. It's like broadcasting the "truth" with a disdainful roll of eyes that Asians are called that because they live in Asia, Cap !!
The official version is rather dry, in it the whole comparison of Tartary with Tartarus is reduced only to the confrontation between Hell and Catholicism, Darkness and Civilization, like a metaphor. But in general, there are other reasons for comparing Tartary and the Greek "Τάρταρος", which have nothing to do with the fear of "Asian demons." I will now list them briefly:
1. The most obvious and widespread fact, indicated even in Wikipedia, is the remoteness of Tartary from Europe. Like Tartarus, it was located far from the surface of the earth.
2. Tartarus, according to Hesiod, is surrounded by a large copper wall created by Poseidon. It is also said about the territory of Tartary that in the "distant, distant" times in the Caucasian gorges (from where Tartary began for the Europeans) Alexander the Great locked wild peoples with a door.
3. The most common epithet of Tartarus is ἠερόεντα, that is, "foggy, cloudy, twilight." We read how Virgil described the land near the Sea of Azov. Either Virgil was not at all versed in geography, or … In any case, this text corresponds to or formed the attitude towards the lands located not much north of the Balkans for many years. And here the "twilight edge" is definitely described:
“Otherwise, where the Scythians live, near the waters of Meotian, Where yellow sand, agitated, spins in Istra,
Where the Rhodope Mountains bend under the very pole.
There, in barns, locked up, livestock are kept for a long time;
There is no grass in the field and no leaves on the trees, But, cheerless, lies under the deep ice, in the snowdrifts
Snowy land, and they reach seven cubits in height.
It is constantly winter, constantly breathing cold
Qawra. The sun cannot dispel the gloom there, Is it racing on horses to reach the highest sky
Or bathe the chariot in the ruddy waves of the Ocean.
Suddenly unexpected crusts freeze on the running water, And the river holds iron rims on the ridge, -
Formerly a shelter for ships, now for ragged carts.
Copper often gives cracks there; clothes grow cold
Directly on the body; the wine does not flow; it is chopped with an ax.
Whole pools suddenly turn into a strong ice floe,
And, in a beard hardened uncombed, icicles hang.
Snow, meanwhile, goes on and fills the air;
And the herds perish; stand motionless, frost
Shackled, carcasses of bulls, under an unprecedented load of deer
They freeze, huddled in a crowd - only the tops of the horns are visible.
Without sending the dogs, without bothering to place the snares, Them, already frightened, breaking through the snowy mountain
In vain with his chest, without frightening them with a red panicle, They beat them with spears, coming close to them, and loudly roaring
So they finish off; then carried away with a joyful boom.
They themselves spend their leisure time in their dugouts
There in the depths; haul logs of oak and solid
Elms to their hearths and burn them in a smoky flame.
In games, a winter night is spent imitating guilt
Brago or a drink from fermented mountain ash.
So savages live under the Bear of Hyperborean
Spiteful. It is hard for them to endure the blows of the Riphean Evra -
And they cover the bodies with an animal red skin."
(Georgiki III: 349-383)
4. The underworld in all mythologies is guarded by dogs. In Egypt, this is the jackal Anubis, among the peoples of Siberia, these are ordinary dogs, among the Scandinavians - the evil dog Garm, among the Greeks - Cerberus. In the name "Cer-ber" one can see "Holding the Border". At the same time, since ancient times, it has been known about cinephalous, that is, dog-headed peoples, which the Greeks placed on the border of their ecumene, that is, the Pseglavians just “kept” the boundaries of the world familiar to the Greeks, and then a “gloomy” unknown began, which was “Tartary ". So Hades, who merged with Tartarus in later performances, had his own guard dog, Tartary had his own dogs.
Moreover, in some epics the Tatars are directly called “dogs”. For example, in the epic about "Ilya Muromets and Kalin-Tsar" the Tatar Tsar has a constant epithet "dog" (For example, "Does God promise me to drag the dog of Tsar Kalin" or "And then the dog Kalin-Tsar on Kiev hail ", and many more times), or in one song it is sung" Ai from behind the Don-Don - Danube-Danube! - The thief-dog Kudryovanko-Tsar was rising … "(" Grigoriev A. D. "Arkhangelsk epics and historical songs. Volume 2"). The epic about Mikhail Kozarin says “Three Tartars are sitting at a conversation, As if three dogs are riders, A red maiden walks in front of them, a Russian maiden is a polonyanochka …” or “He chopped the first Tatar with a spear, He rubbed another dog with a horse, The third was damp on the ground,” etc. etc.
With regard to our "crossing-crossing", we recall, firstly, the dogs of Hecate, who were sacrificed at the CROSSROADS, and secondly, the famous dog-headed Christopher, who worked as a FORWARDER across the river. Each case should be considered separately, but they have one thing in common - the connection of dogs with a crossing-crossing.
5. Those who offend the gods got to Tartarus, and they were in great torment there. And Plato directly connects this place with a dungeon. Well? Let's remember imperial Russia. Officials and clergymen who disliked the emperor were exiled to Astrakhan, and those who were worse - to Siberia. That is, all the territories of Tartary. The punishment is hard labor in exile, like various mythical Sisyphus, Ixions, etc. served a sentence for life in Tartarus. That is, another direct parallel with Tartarus.
Having these 5 facts, it is difficult to just close our eyes to the extraordinary similarity of the two “locations”. But what did the Greeks want to show when talking about Tartarus? It is surrounded by a wall, the dogs are guarding, the unwanted are imprisoned there, and it is located far from the world. Prison, in a word (just "gloomy" Tartarus, Dungeon).
But where does the "intersection" from dictionaries have to do with it? And for a reason I do not use “crossroads”, but “intersection” when I speak about “Tar” words. In Russian, this is a wonderful figurative word: Intersection and Interruption, which simultaneously denotes a crossroads, a ferry, a journey, an interruption, an end; that is, "to cross" = "to block", which is very easily represented by the example of a superstition about a black cat crossing the road to a walking person or graphically in the form of a cross ("+", "X") or a perpendicular ("T").
And if we again recall the symbolism of the crossroads, then the main thing will be that the crossroads is a BORDER, a boundary, which again unites both meanings of "tartare".
Thus, we have Tartarus - a barrier for the Titans so that they do not return to the world, and a place of imprisonment for many wicked, and perhaps the border of the entire visible world, which is reflected in the meaning of "suppression". And also Tartary, in the name of which the other side of the "intersection" is used - passing through … To get to the East, you will have to go along "Tartary". Perhaps that is why, in the description of the Greek Tartarus, "gates" (πύλαι) are suddenly encountered? Just from the symbolism "Tara" as a "passage"? And, as a generalization of all this graphically, we have the Scottish "Tartan", which draws us numerous intersections of thread-paths ("tara" in Hindi), their "knots" (shackles of Tartarus)
Author: peremyshlin