mOhapADA near mumbai

[Guest guest]

-pATA/pATi usually refers to a campsite in dravidian toponymy.

Eg., a) kAT-pATi near Vellore, a major railway junction near Chennai

and b) vijaya-vADA, A.P.

 

In Tamil, mOkam (pronounced as mOham) = trumpet flower

(pATali/pAtiri).

In Sanskrit, mOkam (tamil) (=pATali/pAtiri) flowers are

a) mOgha b) a-mOgha and c) sita-mOgha (also, sita-pATalikA).

The mogha (Bignonia Suaveolens) flowers are ali-priya (aLi = bee in

sangam

tamil), bhramareSTa, madhu-dUta. The pAtiri blooms flowers with

honey, but no fruits. Fruitlessness of pAtiri(mOgha, tam. mOkam) is

often mentioned in Tamil poems. Patrons are of three kinds:

Jackfruit tree gives no flowers, but only fruits;

Amra tree gives both of them, pAtiri tree only flowers.

"collAma lEperiyar, collic ceyvar ciRiyar

colliyuJ ceyyAr kayavarE - nalla

kulAmAlai vERkaNNAy! kURuvamai nATil

palAmAvaip pAtiriyaip pAr."

 

Tamil Nadu has two famous placenames named after mOkam tree:

a) mOkUr (pronounced mOhUr) in sangam times -

Descendents of Moriyas, in early centuries CE, fought battles

at mOkUr. This mOkUr is identified the place in KallakuRicci

taluk, S. Arcot (Dist.) (R. Raghavaiyangar, kOcar, Annamalai u.,

1951).

b) mOkUr, near Madurai, - one of 108 Srivaishnava Tirupatis.

 

Another possibility is mOha refering to madhuka tree (called

usually iruppai/iluupai, Bassia Latifolia). These flowers are sweet,

and

sangam texts describe bears climbing to snatch these branches.

Mukhalingam, in Andhra Srikakulam district, has the stalavrksham

as the mOha tree [1].

 

mOhapADA, after the mOha tree (pAtiri? madhuka?), is something like

kurundvADi in Maharashtra. KurundvAD house senior wrote:

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0012&L=indology&P=R11091

 

Where is kurundwAD in Maharashtra? There are villages

called kurunda-pADi in Tamilnadu. Kurundam is a famous tree

in Tamil literature mentioned in Krishna legends.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

[1] http://sino-sv3.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/kri.htm

 

The Identification of Kalinganagara

B. V. Krishnarao,

Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society Vol.15, pp. 105-115

 

"The linga which

is called Mukhalingesvara appears, however, to have been never

known as such; it was always called Madhukesvara. Equally

surprising is the fact that though at the present day the village

is called Mukhalingam, the name too, does not appear in the

inscriptions found in the temples. " [...]

"Thus, curiously however, that while Katakam

of Nagara is still called Nagarakatakam the Vidu of Nagara

ceased to be known as such and a new name Mukhalingam

has usurped its place. This is indeed interesting and I think it

may not be out of place here to enquire into the origin of this

new name. The name of the linga Madhukesvara becomes

Mohakesvara in prakrit, and Moha and Madhuka mean the

same mauha tree. The name Mohalingam has in course of

time become corrupted into Mukhalingam on account of the

Telugu Brahmanas who ignorant of the original meaning

explained the word in the Kshetramahatmya as a compound

of two words, Mukha and Linga, i.e., linga with face."

 

 

 

S. Tilak wrote:

> Mohapaata is Mohopada, a small town about four kilometres off

>the Mumbai-Pune highway near Dand and not far from the huge

>Hindustan Organic Chemicals complex of Rasayani. I am told that the

>place was named after the Moha tree. I know Mohopada well and have

>been there many times because my aunt lived there. I also happen to

>know some members of the Palnitkar family. Please contact me

>off-line if you wish to know more details.

 

>INDOLOGY, "deshpandem" <mmdesh@U...> wrote:

>Thanks, Shrinivas, for the information. Yesterday I spoke to a Mr.

>Palnitkar here in Detroit, and he confirmed that his family comes

>from this same village of MohapADA. Most likely the copyist of my

>manuscript is his great great grand uncle. Basically, this is all I

>need at this time. What makes this fascinating is that the copyist

>of my manuscript, Shri Hari Vishnu Palnitkar, is cited in other

>Marathi sources as being a witness in a dispute regarding the

>authenticity of the MaitrAyaNI brahmins, and he cites portions of

>this text, the VedavicAra. Best,

>

> Madhav Deshpande