Know the Etymology: 100
Place Name of the Day: Wednesday, 02 July 2008

Baṇḍārawela

பண்டாரவளை (பண்டாரவிளை / பண்டாரவேலி)
Baṇḍārawela

Baṇḍāra+wela

The prince’s paddy fields
The noble junior’s paddy fields
Bandaara’s paddy fields

Baṇḍāra

Son of a chief or nobleman, prince, a term used only in the Kandian provinces of Sri Lanka (Clough's Sinhala Dictionary); Pa'ndaaram: A title of the princes of the Kingdom of Jaffna (as seen in the Tamil historiographical literature of Jaffna); Wealth, treasury, warehouse (Changkam Diction and Old Tamil Lexicons); Belonging to the king, government or public property; A preceptor or chief incumbent of a Saiva Mutt, a Saiva mendicant (Tamil Dictionaries); Pa'ndam: Commercial commodities, gold, grains, wealth, things that are made (from the Tamil verb root Pa'n, equivalent to the English verb, make) (Changkam Diction, Old Lexicons and Tamil Dictionaries); Banderi: Person in charge of the stores; Bandaara: treasury; Bandaarain: The king (Dhivehi / Maldivian); Bhaṇḍa, Bhaṇḍdaka: Goods, wares, implements, articles; Bhaṇḍāgāra, Storehouse or treasurty; Bhaṇḍāgārika: A store keeper or treasurer (Prakrits including Pali); Bhāṇḍāgara: A treasury (Sanskrit)

Wela

Paddy field (Clough's Sinhala Dictionary), also a suffix of wide prevalence in the Sinhala place names; Vi'lai: Paddy field and a place name suffix (Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu); Vi'laivu: Agricultural produce, paddy field (Kathiraiver Pillai's Tamil Dictionary); Vi'lai-yu'l: Agricultural yield (Thirukku'ra'l); Vi'lai-yu'l, Vi'lai-nilam: Paddy fields (Old Tamil Lexicons); Vi'laithal, Vi'laiyal: Maturing (Changkam Diction); Vi'lai (verb): To be produced, be productive, result, mature, ripen (as grain), occur, to raise, cause to grow, produce, bring into being; (noun): Growth, ripening, produce, crop, yield; Vi'laichchal: Produce, crop, yield, ripening grain, growth, ripening (Tamil, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary); Veali: Paddy filed, a measure of cultivation land, an affix for village names (See column on Achchuveali).

Baṇḍārawela (Ba'ndaaravela) is a Sinhala place name of an important and well-known town in the hill country of Sri Lanka.

There is a reason why the writer has chosen this place name for the etymological columns.

Baṇḍārawela and its surrounding tea estates have a large population of up-country Tamils, as a result of the 19th century migrations from Tamil Nadu.

The Tamils today, pronounce and spell the place name as Pa'ndaara-va'lai, which is a recent Tamil rendering, perhaps a century old.

Baṇḍārawela is an illustrative example showing not only the affinities between old Tamil and Sinhala at their substratum, but also how such affinities are not understood by the present generation of Tamils and Sinhalese.

The meaning of the place name in Sinhala, especially Kandian Sinhala, is obvious. It means the paddy fields of a prince or a junior of the nobility. (Baṇḍāra: prince or a junior of the nobility; Wela: paddy fields). It can also mean as the paddy fields of Bandaara, if it is taken as a personal name.

The word Baṇḍāra has cognates in Sanskrit and Prakrits to mean treasure, treasury, treasurer etc, but it also has cognates in old Tamil, meaning the same:

Pa'ndam: commodities (Akanaanoo'ru, Paddinappaalai, Thirukku'ra'l); gold (Ma'nimeakalai); Pa'ndaaram: wealth, treasury (Paripaadal and many post-Changkam works).

The interesting point is how the word in its usage became connected to royalty in Sinhala, Eezham Tamil of the times of the kingdom of Jaffna and in the Maldivian language, Dhivehi.

In the Tamil usage of Tamil Nadu, Pa'ndaaram increasingly became connected to the incumbents of Saiva mutts and Saiva mendicants, even though the following obsolete usages indicate the connections of the word with government, crown or commonwealth: Pa'ndaarath-thoappu (government garden); Pa'ndaara-mea'lam: A drum beaten for government notices; Pa'ndaara-viduthi: Rest house; Pa'ndaara-vealai: Obligatory public work without payment; Pa'ndaara-vaadai: The village, where cultivators enjoy the income (means no taxes; this is also a place name in Tamil Nadu).

In today's Eezham Tamil usage, the word Pa'ndaaram stands for two layers of Saivism-based communities: the Veera Saivas of Kannada origins and Saiva mendicants of some other origins, which will be discussed in another column.

The suffix part of the place name Wela, which means paddy fields in Sinhala has no cognates in Sanskrit or Prakrits.

Neither the other meaning for Wela in Sinhala, (a sort of spear connected to Vēl in Tamil), nor a Prakrit word Velaa, meaning limits or boundary, is meaningful to the context of the place names ending with this suffix.

Similar sounding Sinhala words Wala meaning forest (Vallai in old Tamil); Waḷa meaning pit, hole or well (Va'lai in Tamil and Va'laa for water resource in old Tamil) and Waela for sea shore (from Waella for sand, Vaalukam in literary Tamil), are either not suitable to the context or don't nullify the possibility of the paddy field meaning, considering the occurrence of a vast number of Wela suffixes in the names of potential cultivation villages.

The obvious cognates for Wela are the Tamil words Vi'lai and Veali, which mean paddy fields and occur as place name suffixes in the southern most districts of Tamil Nadu, especially in the Thirunelveli, Thooththukkudi, Kanyakumari districts. A name such as Pa'ndaara- vi'lai itself is found in the Kanyakumari district. A list of examples is cited at the end of this column.

The vowel I in Tamil changing into E in Sinhala, the palatal 'L softening into dental L and the diphthong AI becoming A, are the features seen between the cognates which are quite typical between Tamil and Sinhala.

The word Vi'lai of much antiquity in Tamil diction has rendered a host of words and phrases in Tamil, connected to cultivation and cultivation fields. (See the table). It may have connections with another Tamil word Vea'l, linked to cultivators and landlords. However, in Eezham Tamil, its root Vi'l has an interesting derivation in the dialect of the Paraiyar community. In their dialect, a man of agricultural community (Vea'laa'lan) is Vidduvan and a woman is Vidduvichchi ('L and D interchange).

Even though the word Vi'lai is connected to agriculture and produce, the word occurring as a place name suffix, meaning cultivation fields is confined to the southern most districts of Tamil Nadu, inferring an early linguistic interaction of this region with the southern parts of Sri Lanka.

See the column on Achchu-veali for discussions on the connection between Wela and Veali, both meaning paddy fields and come as place name affixes.

When the present Tamils have rendered Baṇḍārawela into Pa'ndaara-va'lai, they had no idea of its meaning, etymology or its generic connections with old Tamil.

Had it been understood, it should have become either Pa'ndaara-vi'lai or Pa'ndaara-veali.

This is not the case only with Sinhala place names rendered into Tamil.

One who encounters the Tamil place names in the Sri Lankan atlases, maps, government records and the media can find how they are mutilated without any consideration to their language and meaning.

What is evident is only the superficiality of the identity we try to make with our living space today, compared to its meaningfulness in the past.

Baṇḍārawela is headquarters of a division in the Badulla district of Uva Province.




Some Related Place Names in Sri Lanka:

Katu-wela, Bate-wela, Pahala-wela, Madi-wela, Palu-gaha-wela, Palle-wela, Uda-wela, Wela-gathera, Kirindi-wela, Dangaha-wela, Wela-pura, Pethige-wela, Thenne-wela, Rambuge-wela, Mandanda-wela, Hathiyal-wela, Mahara-wela, Puwak-gahadi-wela, Randi-wela, Ihala-wela, Nitta-wela, Nuga-wela, Wela-gama, Goda-wela, Guru-wela, Walli-wela, Wala-wela, Mottu-wela, Raja-wela, Aluth-wela, Kuree-wela, Uku-wela, Ambe-wela, Bodhi-wela, Walala-wela, Kumbuk-wela, Unagas-wela, Natte-wela, Hakuru-wela, Hore-wela, Aran-wela, Goraka-wela, Pussa-wela, Elle-wela



Some Related Place Names in the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu:

Arasan-vi'lai, Pullu-vi'lai, Nedu-vi'lai, Nediya-vi'lai, Ma'ni-kaddip-poddal-vi'lai, Kugnchuk-kaddu-vi'lai, Kuddingkal-vi'lai, Pi'l'laiyaan-manai-vi'lai, Theari-vi'lai, Koththanaar-vi'lai, Piraama'nan-vi'lai, Aththikkaddu-vi'lai, Elantha-vi'lai, Ka'niyan-vi'lai, Maa-vi'lai, Paruththi-vi'lai, Nelli-nin'ra-vi'lai, Koaviladi-vi'lai, Thu'ndaththu-vilai, Chemmookkan-vi'lai, Vadda-vi'lai, Pa'ndaara-vilai, Pa'l'li-vilai, Maavalikkaddu-vi'lai, Periya-vi'lai, Thiddu-vi'lai, Thisaiyan-vi'lai



See column on Achchuveali for place names ending with Veali.

First published: Wednesday, 02 July 2008, 00:58