GARMAPADA

 

GARMAPADA (g-r-m-p-d-, attested only in gen. Garmapadahya), name of the fourth month (June-July) of the Old Persian calendar, mentioned in Darius I’s Bisotun inscription, DB I 42, III 7 f., and 46 (see Kent, Old Persian, p. 161a, 183ab). It is equivalent to Babylonian Duʾuzu and Elamite Hallime (which name ist attested several times in the Persepolis tablets; see R. T. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Chicago, 1969, p. 74; W. Hinz and H. Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch, Berlin, 1987, pp. 600 f.). In the Persepolis tablets the Old Persian name is very often rendered as Elamite Karmabat(t)aš (with variants; see Hallock, p. 711a; Hinz and Koch, p. 443). The name Garmapada is composed of the stems Oiran. *garma- “hot; heat” and *pada- “step, footprint, track; (also) floor, place, station.” Neither the usual translation “heat-station” (even not the variant regarding time, “moment of heat”) nor adjectival “having the place of heat” (see Kent, p. 54a) take into account, however, that for *pada- the meaning “floor, place, station” is reliably attested neither in Vedic nor in the earlier Iranian languages. For formal and factual reasons the most probable interpretation therefore may be assuming a possessive compound with the factitive meaning “0the month) causing blazing hot steps (when treading on the ground).”

 

Bibliography:

Given in the text. See also R. Schmitt “Zu den altpersischen Monatsnamen und ihren elamischen Wiedergaben” (in preparations).

(Rüdiger Schmitt)

Originally Published: July 20, 2002

Last Updated: July 20, 2002