Editing Amrita (section)

== Etymology ==
Amrita is composed of the negative prefix, अ {{Transliteration|sa|IAST|a}} from Sanskrit meaning 'not', and {{Transliteration|sa|IAST|mṛtyu}} meaning 'death' in Sanskrit, thus meaning 'not death' or 'immortal/deathless'.

The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient [[Indo-European languages]]: [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Sanskrit]]. The Greek ἀμβροσία (''ambrosia'', from ἀ- “not” + βροτός “mortal”) is semantically linked to the Sanskrit {{lang|sa|अमृत}} (''[[amṛta]]'') as both words denote a drink or food that gods use to achieve immortality. The two words appear to be derived from the same Indo-European form *''ṇ-mṛ-tós'', "un-dying"<ref name="eiec">{{Cite encyclopedia |first1=J. P. |last1=Mallory |editor1-first=J. P. |editor1-last=Mallory |editor2-first=Douglas Q. |editor2-last=Adams |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]] |title=Sacred drink |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1997 |page=538}} Mallory also connects to this root an Avestan word, and notes that the root is "dialectally restricted to the IE southeast".</ref> (''n-'': negative prefix from which the prefix ''a-'' in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived; ''mṛ'': [[Ablaut|zero grade]] of *''mer-'', "to die"; and ''-to-'': adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for Greek [[Nectar#Etymology|nectar]], the beverage of the gods (Greek: νέκταρ ''néktar'') presumed to be a compound of the [[Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]] roots ''*nek-'', "death", and ''-*tar'', "overcoming".