Know the Etymology: 302
Place Name of the Day: Sunday, 27 October 2013

Cheddi-paa'laiyam

செட்டிபாளையம்
Ceṭṭipāḷaiyam

Cheddi+paa'laiyam

The camp or settlement of a merchant or merchant guild

Paa'laiyam

Army, war-camp, village surrounded by hillocks (Tamil, DED 4117); Paa'layam: Camp, army (Malayalam, DED 4117); Paa'leya, Paa'lya, Paa'lye: Camp, settlement, hamlet; Paa'lya, Paa'lye: Army, halting place; Paa'lemu: Guard, camp, army (Telugu, DED 4117); Paa'li: Camp of an army on a war mission (Tamil, Pingkalam Lexicon); Paadi: War-camp (Tamil, Changkam diction, Mullaippaaddu, 28); Town, city, hamlet, pastoral village (Tamil, DED 4064). See column on Maalu-vaadi for etymological connections between Paadi and Vaadi

Cheddi

Merchant, member of the merchant guild or caste (Tamil); Title of a merchant or a member of the merchant guild (Tamil, Chilappathikaaram, 30:49); Eddi: A title bestowed on a distinguished merchant (Tamil, Chilappathikaaram, 15:163); Cheddichchi: Female member of the merchant guild or caste (Tamil); Hettiyaa, Hetti-raala: Equivalent to Cheddi (Sinhala); S'reashtin: Distiguished man, foreman of a guild (Sanskrit, CDIAL 12726); Setthin, Setthi: Equivalent to the Sanskrit term (Pali. Prakrit respectively, CDIAL 12726); Chireaddi: Equivalent to Cheddi (Tamil, Nariviruththam, 26:3, Thivaakaram, 2:32, Choodaama'ni 2:25); Shetti: Equivalent to Cheddi (Kannada, Tulu, Konkani); Seth: Wholesale merchant, head of a guild, banker, respectful term for banker or merchant (North Indian languages). Also see column on Hetti-mulla.

Paa'laiyam and its cognates are common place-name suffixes in South India. But, Paa'laiyam is rarely found in the Eezham Tamil place names.

In Tamil itself Paa'laiyam is relatively a later usage. The word is found in the Pingkala Lexicon of c. 10th century CE. But it is seen in literature only in the later times. Villi Paaratham of c. 15th century could be cited for some of the first usage examples for the term meaning a military or military camp (Villi-paaratham, 39:45, 46:214)

However, Paa'laiyam is a word of Dravidian etymology (DED 4117), having cognates in Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. The word primarily means a war-camp or military camp, but also comes to stand for a settlement, hamlet etc. By 17th century, Paa'laiyam in Tamil meant a territory held by a warlord or assigned to a feudal chief.

Even though the word Paa'laiyam is of a late usage in Tamil, its earlier forms, Paa'li and Paadi (D/ L change) are found in earlier references. The word Paadi was in use since the Changkam times. It was used to mean a war-camp (Mullaippaaddu 28), camp of invading enemies (Thirumoolar 661), Army (Thivaakaram, 2:158), village (Thivaakaram, 5:97), village in a forest tract (Thivaakaram, 5:105), hamlet (Thivaakaram, 5:126) and division of a country (Thivaakaram, 11:165).

Paadi could have possibly come from two roots, Padai meaning army or crowd (DED 3860) or Paadu meaning sleep (DED 3852).

In Eezham Tamil and Sinhala, the popular cognates found in usage and in the place names are Vaadi and Vaadiya. They commonly mean any camp including a fishing camp, temporary lodging, rest house, temporary building etc.

See column on Maalu-vaadi

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Early usage example for Paadi:

“Padu neerp pu'nariyin parantha paadi” (Mullaippaaddu, 28)

“படு நீர்ப் புணரியின் பரந்த பாடி” (முல்லைப்பாட்டு, 28)

The sprawling war-camp like an ocean of roaring waters




Paadi, Paa'li and Paa'laiyam meaning a war-camp:

“Paasa'rai munaippathi paadi paa'laiyam paa'li pakai meat chen'roar u'rai pathi” (Pingkala Nika'ndu 4:177)

“பாசறை முனைப்பதி பாடி பாளையம் பாளி பகை மேற் சென்றோர் உறை பதி” (பிங்கல நிகண்டு 4:177)

Paasa'rai, munaippathi, Paadi, Paa'laiyam and Paa'li are camps of those who went against enemies

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Cheddi, meaning a merchant or a member of the merchant guild/ community in Tamil is a cognate of S'reashtin in Sanskrit and Setthin/ Setthi in Pali and Prakrit. The term of Indo-Aryan etymology (CDIAL 12726) has found its Tamil forms such as Chireaddi, Cheddi and Eddi since early times. Hettiyaa is the cognate in Sinhala.

S'reashtin in Sanskrit/ Indo-Aryan originally meant a distinguished person and it corresponds to the Tamil/ Dravidian term Chi'ranthoan meaning an illustrious or eminent person (from the root Chi'ra/ Chi'rappu, DED 2589)

Also see column on Hetti-mulla.

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Cheddi-paa'laiyam is a village in Ka'luvaagnchikkudi division of Batticaloa district. The place name probably originated from a trading station established by a guild of merchants or an individual merchant. The word Paa'laiyam is used here in the sense of another term Thaava'lam, meaning a trading camp or settlement used by traveling guild of merchants.

First published: Sunday, 27 October 2013, 11:27