Sanskrit mā- ‘to make, produce, create’

Extract

In JRAS, 1960, 95 f., while reviewing J. Gonda's Four studies in the language of the Veda (The Hague, 1959), I put forward the view that the Sanskrit root mā- ‘to make, produce, create’ should not be regarded as a special meaning development of the root mā- (<IB mē-) ‘to measure’, but that it should be taken as an independent root derived from IE mā- ‘to make’, etc., which is also to be seen in Lat. māteria, māteriēs ‘substance, material’ and in the IE word for ‘mother’ (Lat. māter, etc.). The matter was dealt with very briefly in that review, and a much fuller treatment is needed to establish the conclusions proposed there. It is the purpose of the present article to provide this.