Know the Etymology: 94
Place Name of the Day: Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Taravai, Upput-taravai

தரவை, உப்புத்தரவை
Taravai, Upput-taravai

Taravai
Uppu+taravai

The wasteland or brackish-soil fallow land

The brackish soil wasteland

Taravai

waste or uncultivated land, brackish soil lying fallow and overgrown with weeds (Tamil, MTL cites Jaffna diction, Winslow); "Karampu, Kaḷai mūṭiya uvar nilam" (Tamil, Kathiraiverpillai); 1. Taravai: waste or uncultivated land (Tamil, DED 3097); DED relates the word to Taricu: land lying waste or fallow (Tamil, DED 3097, inscription, 1132 CE, SII, xiv, 229); Tariśu: lying waste or fallow (Malayalam, DED 3097); Tari: rough uncultivated (Malayalam, DED 3097); roughness (Kannada, DED 3097); Tarasu: rough, uncultivated, fallow land (Kannada, DED 3097); 2. Tarāy: a piece of waste, raised ground in a paddy field used for threshing (Tamil, Caṅkam diction, Malaipaṭukaṭām, 460); 3. Taram, Taramili: terms related to classification of land for taxation and exemption from taxation (Tamil, inscriptions, 946 CE, SII, vii, 35; SII, vi, 440; Taravai could be related to Taramili > Taravili; Taram: fit; Taramili: unfit); 4. Tuṟavai: open ground, plain (Tamil, MTL relates to Tuṟa: to reject, abandon, DED 3365)

Uppu

salt, alkali, saltiness (Tamil, DED 2674a); cognates in 12 Dravidian languages

Taravai in Eezham Tamil means an open wasteland, or wasteland of brackish soil, usually found overgrown with prostrate grasses and weeds.

The term is listed by MTL as coming from Jaffna diction. "Karampu, Kaḷai mūṭiya uvar nilam" are the definitions given in Tamil by Winslow and Kathiraiverpillai.

In Jaffna and Mannar such lands are mostly found along a lagoon or sea. They are flooded in rainy season and connect to the lagoon or sea. Some of them have been reclaimed as paddy fields and some are found serving as playgrounds in summer for kite-flying, cart race etc. Such grounds are often called Taravai-veḷi (Veḷi: open space).

In the East, a wasteland floodplain in the interior is also called Taravai, as in the example, Taravaik-kuḷam (the pond of the Taravai), near Kuṭumpi-malai in Batticaloa district.

Listing Taravai as a word of Dravidian etymology, DED relates it to Taricu and its cognates in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, meaning a fallow land (DED 3097). The other possibilities are given in the box above on Taravai.

* * *

Taravai is the name of a wasteland cum seasonal saltmarsh grassland, near Civaṉkōyil in Karainagar Island of Jaffna district. The place is flooded in rainy season and is connected to the sea on the north and east (marked with the symbol for marsh and grass on the northeast part of the island, Jaffna OIS)

Upput-taravai is a coastal plain facing Palk Bay, near Talaimaṉṉār in Mannar Town division of Mannar district

* * *

Some related place names:

Taravai:

Īccan-taravai: Maṇṭaitīvu, Kayts, Jaffna; Tampālai, Valikamam East, Jaffna (Balasundaram, p. 155, 209). Īñcu: wild date palm

Perun-taravai: Talaimaṉṉār, Mannar (Talaimannr OIS)

Vāykkāl-taravai: Nīrvēli, Valikamam East, Jaffna (V. Almanac, 2013-14, p. 92). This is a place bordering Uppāṟu Lagoon.

Taravaik-kuḷam: near Kuṭumpi-malai, Koralaippattu South, Batticaloa (Rukam OIS)

Maṭṭakkaḷappu Taravai: Sammanthurai, Amparai

* * *



* * *


Revised: Saturday, 19 August 2017, 18:30

First published: Monday, 09 June 2008, 22:14