posted March 05, 2001 07:16 AM         

Two kinds of Sinhalese words are found in Tamil.

First, compound words formed in Sinhalese, i.e. of Sinhalese composition. Secondly, Tamil words having the Sinhalese form, i.e. along with the words composed of pure Tamil elements, are found Sinhalese words derived from them, with the Sinhalese forms. How to account for the presence of these Sinhalese words in Tamil is our present problem.

The obvious answer which prompts itself is' that Tamil simply borrowed them from the Sinhalese.

Though this is quite possible, since the two races were contact, it does not seem to be the case.

The answer is that Tamil took them from Sanskrit.

The reason is that both Sinhalese and Tamil took a good deal of the Sanskrit vocabulary to enrich their literature.

But here rises an objection. Since Tamil borrowed a part of the Sanskrit vocabulary, the words in question are not Sinhalese but Sanskrit, Sinhalese having borrowed the very same words.

This does not follow. For, if it can be established that in a certain number of words, the constitutive elements are not in Sanskrit, but are in Sinhalese, for such words, Sinhalese is the Mother-tongue: consequently the words are Sinhalese compositions which passed into Sanskrit. It is of these words that there is question here. And since Tamil borrowed a part of the Sanskrit vocabulary, these words passed into Tamil with the rest. I give a few examples.

Sanskrit kingkara, servant

The composition given by Burnouf is: kim, neuter of relative pronoun, what, and kara, doing, lit. doing what. This etymological sense seems to be given because no better could be found.

Tamil Kingkaran, servant, slave, has no origin traceable in Tamil.

The Sinhalese is kikaru, obedient, kikaru is composed of ki, said, what is said, and karu, doing, lit. doing what is said. Sinhalese has the true etymological sense, i.e. obedient. The term cannot be applies to servants and slaves, who are not doing what they are told. In this respect, Sinhalese has the lead, and the Sanskrit sense is defective. Sansk. Kingkara is composed of the Sinh. Verbal noun kim, thing said, and karu, lit. doing the thing said.

Here, it is quite clear, that Tamil took the Sinh. Word kikaru from Sanskrit, since in both the languages, the spelling is identical and the sense somewhat defective.

Sansk. Wallura, Wild Pig's Meat

To wallura, wild pig's meat, Burnouf gives no etymology. None is traceable in Sanskrit. The tongue which the possesses the constitutive elements is Sinhalese, i.e. wal, wild, ura, pig. The sense wild pig's meat came into use as it does in other languages. The flesh of animals prepared for meat is called mutton, Fr. Boeuf, bull; poulet, chicken; pore, swine, pig.

The Tamil is waluram, wild pig's meat. Here again, we have the Sinhalese word walura whose true sense is wild pig, borrowed from Sanskrit whose defective sense is found in Tamil.

Sansk. Wallura, Wild Place

No etymology is traceable in Sanskrit. The constitutive elements are found in early Dravidian, i.e.

Sin. Wal, wild, savage, jungle.

Tam. Wan-am, wild place, jungle, etc. These words are respectively derived from root pal, stem pan(t).

Tam. Ura-m, country, place, village, etc.

Hence wal-l-ura, wild place, uncultivated land. The first Sansk. Constitutive element is Sinhalese the word which passed into Tamil or walura belongs to the old Dravidian stock.

Sansk. tata, my dear, etc.

tata is a familiar term addressed to parents, children, etc., it is the equivalent of my dear etc. Sansk. tatagu means having reference to the father -agu is the Tamil aka, belonging to. Consequently, the first element tat-(a), means father.

It is Sinh. tatta, father, Tam. tantai, derived from stem tant of root ta (q.v.) to produce.

Sansk. Siwika, Palanquin

No sansk. Etymology. The constitutive elements are found in Sinhalese siwigeya, sivige, howdah, palanquin, litter; sivi, skin, skin of any animal; ge, house, lit. a house of skin. The Tamil is sivikai, palanquin, litter, carriage drawn by bulls. Here again, it is clear that Tamil took its word from Sanskrit and not from Sinhalese. Final Tamil -ai stands almost invariably for final Sansk. a.

Sansk. sna, to bathe.

Sna means to bathe, to wash. The Sinhalese is na. It is the term used for bathing, washing in general. Sinh. Snana implies something more; it is the washing of the head, the complete immersion. So, the composition would seem to be is a head, nana-wa to wash or bathe the head; isna>sna.

Tam. Sna nam means bath, ablution, purification.

Sansk. sambara, antelope

No etymology in Sanskrit. The constitutive elements are found in the Vedda and Elu ambara, buffalo, dear. The composition is an, horn and bara, wearing (Vide General View Root a, ank).

Sansk. palayanda, Carpenter, Plasterer

Burnouf places this word in the list of words derived from pala.

The only meanings of pala are 1) flesh, 2) a karshas (weight for gold).

First, the connection between the meanings flesh, karshas and carpenter, plasterer, is by no means evident.

Secondly, the element ganda is not accounted for. This etymology may be dismissed.

Sansk. palaganda is the Sinhalese phalaganda.

This word is composed of:

Phala-ka, 1) plank, bench, table, 2) clay, and of either ganda, culture, knowledge; ganda, to take, receive or ganda, to rub, manipulate.

With the sense plank, we obtain the meaning carpenter.

With the sense clay, we obtain the meaning plasterer.

Tam. Palakai-konta means having taken planks; but 1) palakai has not the sense clay, 2) the Sinh. And Sansk. - ganda is identical.

Sansk. gawala, Wild Buffalo

The composition given by Burnouf is go, bull and suffix ala.

This thus not account for the sense wild.

This word seems to have been constructed according to the same process as Lat. Bubalus, Gr. Boubalos, a buffalo, a kind of dear or antelope, i.e. by the reversing of the constitutive elements.

Reversing the Sins. constitutive elements wal-gaw, lit. a wild ox, we obtain gaw-wal>gawal-, the Sansk. gawala, a wild buffalo. It could he objected that this construction would be an anomaly in Sanskrit which constructs its words in the order of Dravidian (Vide General View). It is an anomaly: but there are others of the same kind in Sanskrit. E.g. jitakrodha, who has subdued his anger; jitasatru, who has overcome his enemies, etc. In these words Sanskrit has the order of Greek.

Lat. Bos, bull, cow, is written bu in composition. E.g.

bu-culus, a young bull; bucula, a young cow, It is Irish and Gael. Bo. These words are connected with Tam. a, genitive aw, in, bull, cow. Hence, Lat. Bov-is (dravid. In=ir; Vide Origin of Declensions). With stem ak are connected Lat. Vacca, cow, Basq. Behia, Fr. Vache, etc.

The construction bu-w-wal would give Latin bubalus, buffalo.

Sansk. garbha, Womb

No etymology in Sanskrit. Garbha means 1) embryo, foetus, a living germ, the young of an animal, a newly born child, 2) the ovary of a flower, the womb, etc. Burnouf says that the first meanings are the true sense and that the second are extensive. We will see below that it is the contrary. This is a word which clearly shows that Sanskrit misleads.

Garbha is the Tamil karuppai, womb, ovary of a flower, etc. The word is composed of karu, seed, foetus, embryo and pai, pouch, pocket, lit. the pouch or pocket of the seed, foetus, etc., the womb.