Ricerc@Sapienza

Late Khotanese has the verbs ¹bijs‑ ‘to pour’ < Iranian *u̯ai̯ǰ‑ ‘to shake, swing’ and ²bījs‑ ‘to fit in’ (intransitive) < Iranian *u̯i̯ač‑ ‘to contain’. The article reinterprets three passages in two Buddhist works and shows that the second verb also occurs in Old Khotanese and was originally spelled ²bijs‑. The reanalysis of bijsīndä ‘they fit in’ in Book of Zambasta 2.186 is confirmed by indentification of the verse as a quotation from the Vīradattaparipr̥cchā; biśtä ‘it fits in’ in Book of Zambasta 22.110 derives regularly from *u̯i̯ač‑ and, thus, belongs to ²bijs‑, not to ¹bijs‑ < *u̯ai̯ǰ‑, which would give *biśdä; and bäjsäte śtä in the figurative sense ‘has been absorbed in’ in Ratnakūṭa 142.1 corresponds to the Sanskrit original.