Know the Etymology: 272
Place Name of the Day: Friday, 09 August 2013

Mannaar

மன்னார்
Maṉṉār

Mannaar

The raised place (of sand)

Mannuthal

Raising one’s clothes as in crossing a river (Tamil, MTL); Mannik-ko’l: (verb) Telling to tuck up or raise one’s clothe in walking etc., (Tamil, Mannaar dialect); Mannal: Height (Tamil, Naamatheepa Nika’ndu, 771, MTL); Greatness (Tamil, Pingkala Nika’ndu); Man: Greatness (Tamil, Jaffna Dictionary); Mannu: (verb) To be permanent, endure, remain long, stay, preserve, be steady (Tamil, DED 4778); Mannal: Permanence, stability, steadiness (Tamil, DED 4778); Cognates are found in Malayalam, Telugu, Naikri, Parji, Gadba, Gondi, Konda, Pengo, Manda, Kuwi, Kurux, Maltese and Brahui. Some of the shades of meanings are: to become, turn out to be, be in appearance, be abundant, to grow and to be produced (DED 4778); Man’ru: Elevated place, platform, stage, open space (Tamil, DED 4777); Mannemu: Highland, upland (Telugu, DED 4701)

Ekku

also Ekki (verb): 1.To be heaped up as sand on the shore (Tamil, DED 770); 2. To reach up, stretch oneself in reaching for a thing, climb, mount, get up, to rise, go up (DED 766); Ekkar, Ekkal: Sandy place, sand heaped up (as by the waves), sand hill, fine sand (DED 770). Cognates are found in Malayalam and Telugu (DED 770). A related word is Egga in Maldivian, denoting the rising coastline seen from the sea. Compare the word formations, Ekku to Ekkar and Mannu to Mannaar

Mannaar is the toponym for the large sandy island that has formed on the eastern end of the Adam’s Bridge reef. This is geologically comparable to the formation of the Raameasvaram Island on the Western end of the reef. Both are ever growing sand formations in the last few millennia.

Mannaar today specifically means the fort and town part in the western end. The eastern tip of the island is called Thalai-mannaar, meaning the front or tip part of Mannaar.

The toponym Mannaar seems to have come from its geology of raised landscape caused by the accumulation of sand.

Mannal means height in Tamil (MTL and Naamatheepa Nika’ndu 771) and Mannuthal is the act of raising anything.

In the dialect of the coastal folk of Mannaar, Mannik-ko’l as a verb and Mannik-ko’l’luthal as a noun mean to raise anything and the act of raising anything. The usages are commonly found noticed in the context of lifting or tucking up one’s clothe as such in the act of walking in water (Dr. A.S. Sosai, Vangkaalai, Mannaar).

The association of the act of lifting up with the nomenclature of sand banks or dunes could also be seen in another Tamil word formation Ekkar.

Ekkar and Ekkal in old Tamil mean sand dunes or sand banks accumulated along the seashore or riverbanks. The words come from the Tamil verb Ekku, meaning to reach up, stretch up, rise up, climb, mount etc.

Mannal, from the verb Mannu, meaning height or the act of getting lifted up is not a literary usage in Tamil. It is a folk usage and only one old lexicon, Naamatheepa Nika’ndu, notes the shade of meaning. But Mannaal meaning permanency, stability, and steadiness is of old literary usage and it is taken as a word of Dravidian etymology (DED 4778).

* * *

Mannaar is referred to as Mannaaram in Sinhala.

Early references to the toponym Mannaar appear from the period 12th-13th century CE in the records of the Pali chronicle Culuvamsa (Sirima Kiribamuna, 2013)

They come in the forms Mannaara-gama (Mannaar village) and Mannaara-pattuna (Mannaar port town, Mannaarp-paddinam in Tamil).

The Culuvamsa reference differentiates Mahaa-thitha (Maathoaddam) from Mannaar.

It seems that emerging roughly from the 13th century CE onwards the Mannaar port in the Mannaar Island replaced the ancient port Maa-thoaddam on the opposite coast in the main island which by that time was getting silted.

The meaning ‘raised place’ arrived at for the term Mannaar tallies with the geographical and historical context.

Mannaar was part of the Jaffna Kingdom until its fall in the early 17th century. It was one of the first places where Catholic Christianity made a significant impact in the island.

The Portuguese and the Dutch chose to build forts at the Mannaar port in the 17th century.

* * *

Mannaar town of the Mannaar Island is the district headquarters of the Mannaar district.

* * *

Some related place names:

Mannam-piddi: The raised plain or high ground; Dimbulagala division, Polonnaruwa district.

Manam-pita: Probably Mannam-pitiya; The raised plain of high ground; Niyagama, division, Galle district; Ambalangoda division, Galle district

Manniya-ku’lam: The tank the bed of which was raised up or the tank the bund of which was raised up; Mannaar division, Mannaar district

Mannaakka-ve’li: The expanse that got raised up (by accumulation of silt or sand); Murungkan, Naanaaddan division, Mannaar district

Mannar mudi kaaththa mannaakka madu: Also called Neela Madu: The raised reservoir (bund) or the great reservoir that protected the crown of rulers; Murungkan, Naanaaddaan division, Mannaar district

Mannang-kaddi-aa’ru: The river of the raised landscape sector; Vidaththal-theevu; Maanthai West division, Mannaar district

Mannaangkup-piddi: The elevated mound or high ground; Kaarainakar, Jaffna district (Balasundaram)

First published: Friday, 09 August 2013, 01:13