Meaning of the word 'ghoSa'

[Guest guest]

RaghuvaMza 1.45 has the word ghoSa in the sense of a village of

herdsmen. Malli. on this point quotes Amara 'ghoSah AbhIrapallI syAt

ity amarah'.

 

M-W dictionary, among other meanings, gives the following:

 

a station of herdsmen MBh.; Hariv.; R. &c. (ifc. cf. PAN. vi,2 ,

85) ; (pl.) the inhabitants of a station of herdsmen MBh. iv , 1152

 

Is there any treatment, in available literature, of the etymology for

this word?

 

Possibly related question:

 

M-W also gives for ghoSavat:

 

f. a peculiar kind of lute, kathAs., xi f., cxi,

 

Any connection with ghoSa above? This item, possibly also seen in the

name of lute played by vAsavadatta in svapnavAsavadattam?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Regards,

 

Lakshmi Srinivas

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, "lsrinivas" <lsrinivas> wrote:

> My primary interest in ghoSa was the 'herdsmen connection'. Some

> other terms for herdsmen in Sanskrit seem to be built around

> Dravidian lexical items at some level or the other.

>

> Thus yAdava etymologized by FC Southworth as derivable from Dr.

> yATu > (> ATu) 'goat';

>

> AbhIra is certainly derivable from PDr A (cow) + glide + r (plural

> suffix for 'higher class nouns' viz., human beings). Thus Classical

> Tamil Ayar 'herdsmen'.

>

> btw, the Dr items for goat and cow are common words.

>

> The context of occurrence of 'ghoSa' viz., herdsmen, the

> compound 'pallIghoSa' (Mbh., ghoSa as 'AbhIrapallI' in Amara.) seems

> to strongly suggest a Dr derivation for the basic word 'ghoSa'

> meaning herdsmen's village. Such doublet formations with both

> constituents, meaning the same thing and in nominative case are

> common in Dr. But the voiced aspirate 'gh' is puzzling.

 

In the DED (Reprint, Manohar, 1998) on p. 568-), we see several

words with initial voiced aspirates. For example, for bh- alone,

bhaNDAkI 4339, bhaNDi- 3219, bharata- 3263, bhUka- 3646, bhUti- 3541.

Btw, is dhUlI connected to tukaL/tUL (tamil)?

 

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

 

In the classical sangam texts, we find mention

of kOcar and iLam kOcar:

aka216x11 - pal iLa kOcar kaNNi ayarum

 

matu508 - pazaiyan2 mOkUr avai akam viLagka

matu509 - nAn2mozi kOcar tOn2Riyan2n2a

 

The connection of kOcar with konGku country is

obvious. mOkUr is possibly the present

mOkan2Ur on the Kaveri banks, - on the opposite bank,

of PukaziyUr where Chera inscriptions

have been found now. pazaiyan2 kOTTai is

possibly linked to the modern Pazaiya kOTTai near

Kaangayam and its Man2RaaaTuyaars.

 

kOcar have ruled the Kongu country is

told in Cilappatikaaram:

 

uraipeRukaTTurai (Cil.):

"atu kETTuk koGkiLaG kOcar taGkaL nATTakattu

naGkaikku vizavoTu cAnticeyya mazaitozil en2Rum

mARAtAyiRRu."

 

Its old commentary: "aGGan2aJ ceziyan2 nan2mai

ceytu avai nIGkutalin2 atan2aikkETTu koGku

maNTilattu iLaGkOvAkiya kOcarum, naGkaikku

aGGan2aJ cAntiyum vizavum ceytalAl avai

nIGkutalOTE mazaipeytaRRozil peyyum

nALen2Rum vazuvAtAyiRRu."

 

Interesting to note that the Kongu country

is praised for its cattle wealth in CT,

its major temples have connections to

cow-goddess, Kaamadhenu: a) aanilai in Karur-Vanji

and b) paTTisar in pErUr.

 

Perhaps, the early 20th century articles on

Kocar by M. or R. Raghavaiyangar may shed some light.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

[Guest guest]

>>In the DED (Reprint, Manohar, 1998) on p. 568-), we see several

>>words with initial voiced aspirates. For example, for bh- alone,

>>bhaNDAkI 4339, bhaNDi- 3219, bharata- 3263, bhUka- 3646, bhUti-

3541.

>>Btw, is dhUlI connected to tukaL/tUL (tamil)?

 

Dr. Narayan Prasad wrote:

> In his Tamil and English Dictionary, Winslow(1862) gives Skt

> origin for tUL and considers it "a change of tULi".

> "tukaL" appears to have a parallel "TukaDA" (read with a dot

> below D in devanAgarI script) in Hindi (or "tukaDA" in Marathi),

> having the meaning "piece, bit, part,fragment,particle etc". The

> corresponding diminutive in Hindi is "TukaDI"("tukaDI" in

> Marathi). In Kannada "tukaDi, tukaDa, tukkaDa, tukkaDi"

> (cf Kittel's Dictionary).

>

 

"tukaL" does not appear to be a borrowing in Tamil. There are many

attestations in CT texts. For example, go-dhUli filling

the sky in CT akanAn2URu:

 

van2pulam tumiya pOki kogkar

paTu maNi Ayam nIrkku nimirntu cellum

cEtu A eTutta ce nila kurUu *tukaL*

akal iru vicumpin2 Un2Ri tOn2Rum

 

- . . akanAn2URu 79:5-8

 

"tukaL/tUL" is listed in DEDR.

DEDS 525:

tukaL - dust, particle of dust, pollen;

tUL - dust, powder, particle, pollen

Obviously related with tukaDi(/a) in Kannada.

 

Compare "tukaL/tUL" with

a) "makaL/mAL" (= daughter, woman),

("mAL" is mentioned by Kumarila:

CTamil/message/424)

b) "akaztal/aaztal" (= to dig, Cf. "akazi" = moat)

c) "Occu-tal" (= to raise in order to strike), 'ukaccar' (= drummer)

d) "mOTu/mukaTu" (=ridge of roof)

e) "cEppu/cikappu" (=red)

f) DED 2686: (tamil) "tukir" (=red coral), "tOrai" (=pale red),

(telugu) "togaru" (=red), "dOra" (=red, half-ripe)

g) "nikar/nEr" (= equal, likeness, similar)

h) Perhaps, "pakartal" with "pATal/pARal"

i) "puku-tal/pU-tal" (to enter, to spread)

j) "makaTTu-tal" (= to trip over), "mATTu-tal" (=to fix, to get stuck)

 

 

> "tukaL"(Tamil) or "TukaDA"(Hindi) does not appear to be connected

> to "dhUli" or "dhUlI".

 

Does the word, dhUli have a clear IE or IIr etymology? Hope the

Sanskritists tell us.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan