A study of the place-names in the North and East of Sri Lanka

http://dh-web.org/place.names/Presented by

Chandre Dharmawardana

Motivation

• 1975, Mahavaeli project. Why were most village names in Tamil ?

• Why is most of “Malvathu oya” now called “Aruvi aru” ?

• The subject has become a political minefield, for the North & East.

• However, What did history, Archeology, and Etymology say?

• We started a study at Vidyodaya in '75.

Initial study group at Vidyodaya

• Asked around in the campus to form a study group.

• Prof. Hewage and Ven. Prof. Gnanavasa were interested.

• Even though it languished, I remained intrigued and interested. Toponyms can be studied one by one, and in a way which does not greatly disturb one’s own professional work.

Review of older studies

• Horseburgh(1916), Paul E Peries• Casei chetty (1834), Gnanaprakasar, Velupillai, Lewis,

Rasanyagam (1926), Paranavitana, Ferguson’s Directory etc.

• C. W. Nicholas (1963) JRAS issue Godakumbure, K. Indrapala (1965 Ph D. thesis)• Kalansooriya, E. Medhananda (1990s)• Tendency to quote each other and leave it there.• Systematic approach needed

• No master list of place names and no summary of what has been done

Methodology- Simply consult where possible!

• Anecdotal evidence – may be totally mythical, but it is part of the empirical data”. Monks and village sources useful

• .Danger of folk-lore toponymics• Etymology – availability of online dictionaries very useful. a)The Madras Tamil Lexicon, b)The digital Cologne Sanskrit Lexicon, c) Malalasekera Pali-Proper names and online Pali Dicitionaries d)Sinhala Etymology & Gammar: Gunasekera -1891, Geiger e)Tamil Etymological dict.: Barrow and Emeneau (Cambridge

1965)• Sinhala, Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit Names of Plants –

ethnobotany http://dh-web.org/place.names/bots2sinhala.html• Kadaimpoth, Archives etc

Problems with existing sinhala /and Tamil etymological studies

• Strong tendency to claim that a Sinhala word came from Tamil even when the root word is clearly Sanskrit – Pali. This is true of Gunasekera (1891), Mudliar W. F. Goonawardena, K. Indrapala etc.

• Borrows and Emmenau (Cambridge 1965) also ignore Sanskrit root words (e.g., found in the Rig Veda) and have attempted to give priority to Tamil words (Chankam period)!!

• On-line information from the Wikipedia is completely corrupted due to politically motivated entries planed by “Taprobane” and other militants

• Tamil Nationalist Historians, TamilNet

Toponymics is ideal for web-based collaboration

• highly inter-disciplinary • We have set up a list of existing place

names in the North and East• Added into each place name what we could

find in existing literature (Old maps, writings of colonial authors, the Pali chronicles etc., and anecdotal material)

• Links to maps, events, and first efforts to elucidate root names.

• E-mail forums

Maps with old names• Muttur → Modara

(muvadora,

mooduthora)• Trincomalee →

Gokanna• Kalkuda →

Galthudaava• Arugambay →• Arunagama etc• Kalmunei

→Galmunna

Pali & Sinhala place-names

• Pali names in the Chronicles paralled sinhala names, but sometimes modified to fit in with the meter of Pali verse., or direct translations.

• C. W. Nicholas quotes:• Donivagga for Denavaka• Hirannamalaya or Suvannamalaya for

Ranmalakanda• -thali -goda, -sobbha, -rukkha , etc for sinhala endings -goda, -vaththa, -raka.. etc• Jambukolalena for Dambululena

TamilizationMeepaathota → Iℓuppaikadavai

• It is the port of the Magha invasion. 13th CE. Madhupatheetha of the Mahavamsa, and Meepathota in sinhlala, tally with the Mee tree, Bassia Longifolia, which is “Irruppai”, or Illuppai in Malayalam and inTamil.

• The port existed before the Maghas who simply translated the name Meepathota into Malayalam.

• Shows the need for a compendium of Sinhala, Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit etc. botanical names. We have done this. You search for Illupai in

• http://dh-web.org/place.names/bot2sinhlala.html• ethnobotany

Modern Tamilization via inappropriate transliteration

• Here the sinhala name should be Omanda. But the Tamil form is transliterated into Sinhala (inappropriate)

• In Colombo buses the name Hettiyawatta is written as such in English and sinhala, but Hettiyavattei in Tamil (appropriate)

• Ganemullai, Dehivalai, Tangallai, Kottachenai, etc., are how they are written in Tamil (appropriate).

Malaya and Malai (Example 1)

• Karthigesu Indrapala (2006, Evolution of an Ethnic Identity, footnote 359) Claims that the stub “ -malé “ in Kothmale, or the “territorial name Malaya, applied to the central highlands of Sri Lanka from the time of the earliest writings, is of non-Indo-Aryan origin”, because there is a Chankam Tamil form “Malai ”.

• Why ignore older usages like “mleccha” in Sanskrit, and “Milakkha” in Pali for “hillman” etc.? Sinhala “Malayarata” and Tamil “Malai” , and Pali “Malaya” could have come from the Sanskrit.

• This is an example of not probing deep enough. “Chankam Tamil” is much younger than Sanskrit.

Pattana and Pattinam (Example 2)• We quote Indrapala: “The suffix –pattana” in the names of two

ports in the Northern parts of the Island, Jambukola-pattana and Gonagaamaka-pattana is also worth considering. The suffix occurs in some ancient port names in south India, Kaavirappattanam, Naagapattanam, Mayurarupa-pattanam, and “pattanam” is a word found in the Sangam with the meaning “coastal town, coastal region…ports in the southern part of Sri Lanka do not have this suffix”.

• But then we have “-patuna”, “-pathana, -paana, -pana” etc. in Sinhala place names in the south.

• It occurs in Sanskrit and Pali long before Sangam Tamil, for a settlement irrespective of being on the coast or not.

• Dammapattana is the name given to Sraavasthi, Other examples are: Devapattana, Naaripattana etc. Romakapattana is a Skrt name for Rome.

• Another case of looking for a Tamil root ignoring the older Sanskrit.

Yaala - Linguistically tricky example

• The place name was originally applied to a small area (now inside the Yala Sanctuary)

• Sanskrit and also Pali “Sakala”, means cart, and becomes “Hayala” and then Yahala” in old sinhala.

(Syllable inversion process confirmed with P. Meegaskumbura – Peradeniya)

• Eventually, “Yahala”, or “Yaala”, defines an area which needs a cart load of seed paddy for cultivation!

Etymology Systematic approach: start-stubs & end-stubs

• Examine end stubs –aru, -ara, -chenai, -chollai, -malé, -malai, -motte, -mulla, -pana, -pattanai, -pattu, -kadai, -kadavai,-karai, -kerni, -karavai, -kamam, -gamam, -kattu, -kottai, -kandal, motté, -mullai, -(p)ur, -pore, -puram, -thurai, -valai, -vaikkal, -veli, vil, etc• Examine the stating stub, Aadi-, Anthan-,

Akkara-, Irana-, Irat- , Mundan-, Mulliya-, Naaka-, Nedun-, Palai-,Periya-, Puli-, Puthu-, Veli-, Vellan-, Veppan-, etc

Example: analyze the ending “-motté”

• Occurs in: Adaikkalmoddai, Pulmoddai, Asthimoddai, Kanchuramoddai, Koraimoddai, Marukkaraimoddai, Nochchimoddai, Pattapamoddei, Palaimoddai, Thuvarimoddai, Villatimoddai, etc.

• What is the orgin of “moddai” or “moté”?• Sanskrit Manda ↔ Mada ↔ Made ↔ Motté ↔

Moddai is hence the most likely source.• Note:Tamil words for “mud” are Alaru, ala,

alakkar, ceru etc.,

Many original Tamil names exist.

• Thondamanaru is in fact a place name in the north named after a Chola minister who came to export salt from Vaelikaamam (Vaeligama or Jaffna peninsula)

• Places named after Chola queens etc., are found.

Naïve or folk etymology

• Quite common, false & sometimes funny• Colombo naively from “Kola–amba”. Kolon-ahamba• Negambo naively from “Nikan biruva”. Meegamuo• Vaddukkoddei naively from “vadugoda.” Batakotte• Arugambay naively from “six-village bay”. Arunangama• Kurankupanchan naively from “Monkey-jumping point”. In

Skrt, Kurunka could mean other beasts as well, and panchan is derived from the Skrt “pakkana” or “pattan” for village. In Coimbatore even today we have a village called “kurungkuttin”, a “low-caste” village occupied by people who eat cows, monkeys etc. Sinhala village name is “Van Eella” THIS WAS AN LTTE BASE NOTED BY KADIRGAMAR.

Not-so-Naïve Tamil-Brahmi claims

• The interpretation of a place-name hinges on the original languages prevalent in a given location.

• Swaminathaiyaar interpreted cave inscriptions in Tamil nadu as Prakrit. This is the main-stream view.

• Subraaniya-Aiyar in the 1930s began to make claims for a “Tamil Prakrit”, a minor variant of Prakrit , blown up by Tamil-Nadu Nationalism.

• Claims of “Tamil Brahmi”potsherds in SL. The Dravidian scholar Iravatham Mahadeva began the spin. Pushparatnam (Jaffna University), and P. Ragupathy have expanded the spin.

• The Tissamaharama example is enough to appreciate the flimsiness of these claims.

Tissa potshred• Letters are said to be left to

right a Y---; Two quiggles, and inverted Y like, a mulit-lined crowfoot,

• and inverted A, & an S-like. form

• Three symbols selected, (4 and 5 ignored), and read from RIGHT TO LEFT as “ti - ra - li”,

• Last two are read LEFT to RIGHT, to claim the Tamil “mu - ri”

• A whole story is built up from these flimsy data which can be interpreted in many ways.

Brahmi character sets

• Brahmi chacaters• li-ra-ti-X?-Y?-mu-ri / is

claimed to be the symbols and read from left to right.

• One cannot arbitrarily drop symbols, and arbitrarily choose to red from Lto R, or R to L.

• X? looks like si, or to etc• Y? could be a variant of

oo, or soo• ba, pa, ta, ra etc are

indefinite in tamil

Conclusion

• It seems possible to make some headway in getting at the “root” names, with the help of history, etymology, inscriptions, old maps etc.

• Must NOT assume that ALL place names in the North and East are either purely Indo-Sanskrit or purely Dravidian. But most place names seem to be tamilzed Sinhala words with Sanskrit-Pali roots.

• We have prepared maps with these derived root names. • We do NOT attempt to replace Tamil place-names.• Use the corresponding name in each language.• USE HISTORY TO UNIFY PEOPLE, and not DIVIDE.