Know the Etymology: 310
Place Name of the Day: Friday, 27 December 2013

Pa'raa'lai

பறாளை
Paṟāḷai

Pa'raa'lai

The ruins.

The place or structure ruined to the foundation level.

Pa'raa'lai

From Pa'ra'lai: Foundation level of a ruined structure, place or structure ruined to its foundation level (Tamil, Madras Tamil Lexicon); Paa'ru: (verb) To be destroyed, ruined, scattered, torn into pieces, give way, be uprooted, be in disorder, be dishevelled (Tamil, DED 4027, MTL); Pa'ri: (verb) To eradicate, destroy (Tamil, DED 4027)

Pa'raa'lai is a unique term found among the Eezham Tamil place names.

The term comes as the name of a place near Chuzhi-puram (probably meaning the fort or town of the Cholas) and Thol-puram (meaning the old fort or town), amidst paddy fields along the northwest coastal tip of Jaffna Peninsula.

The coastal stretch here that is called Champu-thu'rai or Thiruvadi-nilai today is identified with the ancient port Kola Pattana or Jambukola Pattana mentioned in the Pali texts of the 5th century CE. The texts relate the port with the arrival of the Buddhist emissary of Asoka to the island in the 3rd century BCE.

Jaffna Peninsula makes a corner tip at this place and Kozhu-paddinam in Tamil/ Dravidian means the port at the tip.

The exact location of Pa'raa'lai is a shallow mound of scattered stones found amidst paddy fields, where a famous Pi'l'laiyaar temple and an adjacent Murukan temple are situated.

Archaeological spots marked by scattered stones, tiles and pottery ranging from ancient Black and Red Ware to medieval types could be seen in the stretch of land from Pa'raa'lai to the coast.

The context is strong enough to trace the etymology of the toponym Pa'raa'lai to the Tamil term Pa'ra'lai, which means a place or structure ruined to the foundation level (Madras Tamil Lexicon).

The noun Pa'ra'lai is related to the Tamil root verb Pa'ri, meaning, to eradicate or destroy, and to the root verb Paa'ru, meaning, to be destroyed, ruined, scattered, torn into pieces, give way, be uprooted, be in disorder, be dishevelled etc. (DED 4027, MTL).

During the Dutch times, an Eezham Tamil poet, Nalloor Chinnathampi Pulavar composed an interesting literature, Pa'raa'lai Vinaayakar Pa'l'lu, attributed to the God Pi'l'laiyaar at Pa'raa'lai.

The literature, amusingly narrating the situation of an agricultural worker set between his two competing wives, the elder one from Eezha Ma'ndalam and the other from Choazha Ma'ndalam, extensively records the paddy cultivation practices of the times. It also records the extent of sacredness associated with the place Pa'raa'lai and its Pi'l'laiyaar in the religion and memories of the people at that time.

There is a local myth that crows miraculously attacked the Portuguese who came to destroy the earlier Pi'l'laiyaar temple at Pa'raa'lai. There is another local myth that the sprawling Bo tree found at this place is a legacy of the Asokan emissary and is a parallel one to the one found at Anuradhapura. S.V. Jambulingam Pillai, the publisher of Pa'raa'lai Vinaayakar Pa'l'lu, notes in the introduction that according to local memories, ruins that were still seen in his time, a little away from Pa'raa'lai, belonged to a temple dedicated to Siva as Champesvaran.

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Pa'raa'lai is a locality coming under Chuzhipuram village in the Valikaamam West division of Jaffna district.

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First published: Friday, 27 December 2013, 13:45