sItA

[Guest guest]

sItA "a furrow or track of a ploughshare"

--------

 

Monier-Williams lists a variant zItA 'furrow' for sItA. Also,

the M-W. dictionary connects sIrA 'plough' with sItA/zItA.

 

DED 2313 lists tamil Er 'plough, plough and team of oxen, yoke of oxen', cEr

id. (Jaffna), Telugu Eru, Gondi sEr 'plough', Kui sEru 'a yoke of oxen', Kuwi

hErU plough. Tamil scholars like VaiyApuri Pillai (Editor of Madras Univ.

Tamil lexicon in 7 volumes in 1930s, a classic) connect "Er" ('plough') with

skt. sIra 'plough'. Sangam texts mention "Er". T. Burrow also uses the same

idea in BSOAS 12 (p. 141 and fn. 1, 395).

 

The sanskrit sIra and jaffna cEr "plough", Tamilnadu Er, kannada Eru, etc.,

is related with "cAl" = furrow (cAl is pronounced as sAl by most tamils).

This cEr 'plough' and cAl 'furrow' has -E-/-A- alternations (see another

example in Note I.b).

 

Consider DED 1351 Tamil kIL (kILv-, kINT-)

'to rend, to tear, to split'. Kannada sIL, sILu,

'to split, to divide, to be rent', TuLu cILu

'a split, splinter'; sILu 'split, crack, be divided',

DED 1352 Tam. kIRu 'to scratch, to draw lines',

Kannada gIRu 'to scratch, the scrape, to draw lines',

gITu 'to scratch', Telugu gIta 'line', gITu 'line, scratch'

etc., Telugu gITu/gIta should be compared with

tamil kITam 'a worm, a drill, a beetle that makes an

earthen house'.

 

This dravidian kIL-/kIT- "to scratch, to split, to draw a line" is most

probably connected with zIta 'plough'. -T-/-t- changes exist within Tamil:

a) paTalai = patalai = 'small drum' (sangam texts),

b) kaTavu 'entrance' and katavu 'door'.

c) yATu = goat, sheep, yATavar 'shepherd'

and because intervocalical -T- is pronounced

-D- in Tamil, D. McAlpin connects tamil yATavan

with skt. yAdava. We can see -T-/-t- even

in kIL-/kIT-, telugu has gIta 'line' (DED 1352).

 

M. Witzel, Substrate languages in OIA, EJVS, 1999, p. 30

"This is the opportune moment to briefly discuss another

northwestern peculiarity, the interchange of k/z in Vedic.

This has occasionally been observed, even one hundred years

ago in the case of KarkoTa/ZarkoTa, but it has not been put

into proper relief (Kuiper 1991: 41,42,44 as Proto-Munda,

cf. KEWA III 309, Witzel 1999). The interchange of k and z

is not related at all to the well-known Indo-Ir. dvelopment

of IE *k > Ved. z, as the present variation occurs only in

'foreign' words. [...] In consequence, Vedic loan words

with the interchange of z/k may go back to a phoneme K'

with realization close to [k'] or [z] in the Indus language."

 

If true, can dravidian kIL-/kIT- 'to scratch, to split,

to draw a line' > skt. zItA 'line from a plough'? Later zItA would be

written as sItA. Also, kIL- > sIra, like kALi/kAri 'black goddess',

kuLam/kuram 'hoof', nALAyana/nArAyana 'black god'. There is no

certain IE derivation for zItA/sItA.

 

Another sanskrit word closely related: sImA 'parting of hair,

boundary'. From the same dravidian roots for cEr (pronounced sEr)

'plough', cAl 'furrow', etc., Tamil has cImai 'a bounded area'

such as civakaGkai-c-cImai, telugu cognate sIma as in 'rAyala-sIma'.

Consider also cIv- (pronounced sIvu) = to comb hair, to pare off,

cIval = parings (of areca nut etc.), shavings; cIppu (pronounced

sIppu) = comb.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

Note I:

--------

Many Sanskrit words starting with z- seem to

have k- equivalents in tamil. My hunch is for many

important word-initial z- words in Sanskrit, Dravidian

roots exist. If pursued by Dravidologists and Sanskritists,

the k-/z- alteration will yield important results.

 

[i.a] karkoTa/zarkoTa

----------------------

 

Using k-/z- changes, karkoTa/zarkoTa 'gem-giver',

can be explained from dravidian legends, and nAgams

are known as maNimat in the MahabhArata.

Sangam texts have many myths telling that snakes

when old give out gems in the night. NaagamaNi

is a common name throughout the South.

 

karkoTaka

CTamil/message/165

maNimat

CTamil/message/167

 

 

[i.b] zAkya clan, zaikya (steel) and tamil cEku, eHku 'steel'

-----------------------------

 

-E-/-A- alterations like in cEr/cAl can be

seen in between tamil cEku and zAkya (skt.).

Pl. see

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0009&L=indology&P=16985

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0010&L=indology&P=19312

 

Cross-cousin weddings, usually encountered in Dravidian kinship,

is found in Buddha's family. Much like SubhadrA (Krishna's sister)'s

marriage to Arjuna. KuntI, Arjuna's mother is SubhadrA's father's sister.

Of course the Srivaishnava Alvar poetry, tamil Mahabharatams say

many times Krishna is Panadavas' bro-in-law (maittun2an2).

 

A. M. Hocart's article on cross-cousin weddings in Buddha clan

in Indian Antiquary, 1923-25:

http://pears2.lib.ohio-state.edu/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/hocbud.htm

 

Also, M. B. Emeneau, Was there cross-cousin marriage among the Saakyas?

Jl. American Oriental society, 59, p. 220-226, 1939.

 

[i.c] ziva, zimIdin, zibi

---------------------------

1) ziva (23 Dec 1999) < *kiva < drav. kema(=good/auspicious/red)

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9912&L=indology&P=R11011

2) zimIdin, ziva, zibi (30 Dec 1999)

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9912&L=indology&P=R13503