Know the Etymology: 154
Place Name of the Day: Monday, 16 August 2010

Ma’ndu kuminthaan

மண்டு குமிந்தான்
Maṇṭu Kumintāṉ

Ma'ndu+kuminthaan

The place where silt accumulated as dunes

Ma'ndu

From Ma'ndi: Sediment, dregs, settlings (Tamil, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 4676); Silt (Madras Tamil Lexicon, Winslow); Ma'nda: Dregs, dross, lees (Sinhala, Clough's Dictionary); Ma'ndu: (verbal noun) Pressing, thronging (Tamil, Winslow, MTL); Ma'ndal, Ma'nduthal: The process of collecting together, pressing, thronging, abounding (Tamil, Winslow, MTL). Also see column on Batticaloa / Maddak-ka'lappu for the relationship between Ma'ndu and Maddu, meaning silt, mud etc.

Kuminthaan

The place where dune, heap, mound etc formed (Eezham Tamil); Kumpaan: Dune, heap, mound (Eezham Tamil found in place names); Kumi, Kuvi: (verb) To be heaped up, accumulate, be piled up as sand grain etc (Tamil, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 1741); Kumi: (noun) Heap, stack, pile (Malayalam, DED 1741); Kumpi, Kumpam: Heap (Tamil, DED 1741).

Ma'ndi is a Tamil / Dravidian word meaning sediments, silt etc. (DED 4676). Ma'nda is the Sinhala cognate of the word.

Ma'ndu as an adjective means, silting, silted, having silt, settling of sediments etc. Ma'ndal and Ma'nduthal are the noun forms.

Note that Ma'ndu, found used as a noun or adjective in the Eezham Tamil place names stands between the Tamil Ma'ndi and the Sinhala Ma'nda.

Ma'ndu or Ma'ndi is closely connected to another Eezham Tamil word Maddu and the Sinhala word Mada that mean mud, silt, alkali etc. The words have many cognates in the other Dravidian languages too. (See column on Maddakka'lappu)

The suffix of the place name Kuminthaan is an equivalent of Kuvinthaan. In the Eezham Tamil toponymic usage it means a place where dune formation took place.

Verbal noun suffixes ending with 'aan' is a special feature in Eezham Tamil place names and many of them are found in the Mannaar region. Parappuk-kadanthaan, Moongkil-murichchaan, Poop-pooththaan Ku'lam, Eru-viddaan and Minni-ni'raignchaan are some examples.

Ma'ndu-kuminthaan is a small village in the Ka'l'lk-kaddaikkaadu village area of Maanthai West division of Mannaar district. The place borders a silt plain near Vangkaalai.




Some related place names:

Ma'ndu-vil: The silt pond or the muddy pond or the pond that is getting silted. This is the name of a pond as well as the name of a village where the pond is located. The place is in the Thenmaraadchi division of the Jaffna district.

Ma'ndoor: (Ma'ndu-oor): The village in the silt stretch. This is a village in the Poaratheevuppattu (Vellaave'li) division of Batticaloa district

Ma'ndu-thoa'naa: The silt stretch surrounded by backwaters or the stretch surrounded by backwaters that is getting silted. This is a place in Maang-kea'ni South of the Vaakarai division of Batticaloa district. See column on Paalaiyadiththoa'naa.

Ma'n-kumpaan: The sand dunes. This is a locality of fine white sand dunes in the coastal stretch called Ve'l'lai-kadatkarai (the white seacoast) in the Kayts Island of Jaffna district. A durgah of a Muslim mystique is located at this place.

Koththiyaa-kumpan: The dunes or mound of Koththaan creeper (Cassytha filiformis). There are several varieties of this creeper such as Erumaik-koththaan, Kodik-koththaan, Pasung-koththaan, Mudak-koththaan, etc. (Winslow). The creeper is conspicuous as it besieges an entire area. The plant was widely known as Uzhignai in the Changkam Tamil literature and has rendered the name to one of the poetic themes (besieging a fort) of Pu'ram poetry (Kotta-uzhignai). The creeping plant may have got the name as it grows in a cluster (Koththu: bunch, cluster etc; DED 2092). Koththiyaa-kumpan is a place in the Kumarapuram Village area of the Karaithu'raippattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. There is another probability that the place name might have come from Koththi, a Tamil folk deity (See column on Koththiyaa-vaththai)

First published: Monday, 16 August 2010, 22:39