# शिंशुमार
## Sanskrit
### Alternative forms

* शिशुमार (śiśumāra) — Epic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit
* शुंशुमार (śuṃśumāra)
* शिंशुक (śiṃśuka), शिशुक (śiśuka) — Classical Sanskrit
* शुशुका (śuśukā) — Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
* शि॒शूल॑ (śiśū́la) — Vedic

### Etymology

Unknown; probably borrowed from substrate.
The following hypotheses have been put forth:
* Lüders' proposal relating -मार॑ (-mā́ra) to मक॑र (mákara, “sea monster, crocodile”); rejected by Mayrhofer.
* Thieme's derivation from शिशुम् (śiśum, “child”, acc.sg) + *आर (āra) (related to Latin alere (“to raise, nourish”)); rejected by Edgerton, Mayrhofer, and Turner. But note Thieme's response offering additional evidence for the root अर् (ar) ~ अल् (al, “to satisfy”).
* Some relationship with Tamil கிஞ்சுமாரம் (kiñcumāram), கிஞ்சுமம் (kiñcumam), கிஞ்சி (kiñci, “crocodile”); tentatively listed by Mayrhofer.
In later Sanskrit, the term was folk-etymologically modified to शिशु (śiśu, “baby, infant”) +‎ मार (māra, “killing”), literally “baby-killer”.

### Pronunciation

* (Vedic) IPA: /ɕĩ.ɕu.mɑ́ː.ɾɐ/
* (Classical Sanskrit) IPA: /ɕĩ.ɕuˈmɑː.ɾɐ/

### Noun

शिं॒शु॒मार॑ • (śiṃśumā́ra) stem, m
* South Asian river dolphin (Platanistidae spp.)
** c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 1.116.18:यदया॑तं॒ दिवो॑दासाय व॒र्तिर्भ॒रद्वा॑जायाश्विना॒ हय॑न्ता । रे॒वदु॑वाह सच॒नो रथो॑ वां वृष॒भश्च॑ शिंशु॒मार॑श्च यु॒क्ता ॥yádáyātaṃ dívodāsāya vartírbharádvājāyāśvinā háyantā. reváduvāha sacanó rátho vāṃ vṛṣabháśca śiṃśumā́raśca yuktā́.1890 translation by Ralph T. H. GriffithWhen to his house ye came, to Divodâsa, hasting to Bharadvâja, O ye Aṣvins, The car that came with you brought splendid riches: a porpoise and a bull were yoked together.
** c. 1200 BCE – 1000 BCE, Atharvaveda
** c. 1200 BCE – 800 BCE, Kṛṣṇa-Yajurveda (Taittirīya Saṃhitā)
* mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris)
** c. 600 BCE – 600 CE, Suśruta, Suśruta Saṃhitā

#### Descendants

* Pali: suṁsumāra
* Prakrit: 𑀲𑀼𑀁𑀲𑀼𑀫𑀸𑀭 (suṃsumāra), 𑀲𑀼𑀲𑀼𑀫𑀸𑀭 (susumāra) (see there for further descendants)

### References

* ↑ Mayrhofer, Manfred (1976) “śíśumā́raḥ”, in Kurzgefasstes Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen [A Concise Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary]‎ (in German), volume III, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 346
* ↑ Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “śiṁśumā́ra”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press, page 720
* ↑ Edgerton, Franklin (1959) “Review of Altindische Grammatik; Introduction générale; Nachträge zu Band I, (and) zu Band II. 1; Nachträge zum Abkürzungsverzeichnis von Band II. 2, by J. Wackernagel, L. Renou, & A. Debrunner”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎, volume 79, number 1, page 45
* ↑ Thieme, Paul (1994) “On M. Mayrhofer's "Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen"”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London‎, volume 57, number 2, pages 321–328
* ↑ Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996) “śiśumā́ra-”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 641
* ↑ Monier Williams (1899) “शिंशुमार”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1069.

### Further reading

* Hellwig, Oliver (2010–2025) “śiṃśumāra”, in DCS - The Digital Corpus of Sanskrit, Berlin, Germany.