Know the Etymology: 319
Place Name of the Day: Saturday, 01 February 2014

Ukku’lan-ku’lam

உக்குளன் குளம்
Ukkuḷaṉ kuḷam

Ukku’lan+ku’lam

The tank in the habitat of a kind of hare called Ukku’laan.

Ukku’laan	Also, Charuku-muyal: A hare, which is supposed to live on dried leaves (Tamil, Madras Tamil Lexicon, Winslow, Eezham Tamil diction); Ukkal: Rottenness, that which is rotten or decayed (Tamil, DED 567); Meeminnaa: Literally meaning ‘rat-like’ (Mee: rat; Min; assemblage), Indian moose deer, Moschus miminna (Sinhala word for Ukku’laan); Meevinnaa; Jungle or field rat (Sinhala).
Ku’lam	Tank, reservoir, lake (Tamil, DED 1828); Kulama: Sinhalicised place name component, found especially in the place names of the North Central and North Western Provinces. It means the same as Ku’lam in Tamil.

Ukku'laan or Charuku-muyal is a kind of rabbit that is supposed to live on dried leaves.

It is grey in colour with streaks of dark lines and is usually found amidst fallen leaves and roots of shrubs. The average weight is one and a half to two kilos.

Ukku'laan is hunted for its meat with the help of dogs. The meat, tougher than the meat of common hare, has to be cooked immediately for not losing the taste.

Ukku'laan is an Eezham Tamil word, noted in the Jaffna Dictionary, Winslow’s Dictionary and in Kathiraiver Pillai’s Dictionary. Madras Tamil Lexicon has entries of the words Ukku’laan and Charuku Muyal with a note that they are from Jaffna Dictionary and from Winslow’s Dictionary.

The etymology of Ukku’laan could probably be traced to the Tamil/ Dravidian verb root Ukku and to the noun Ukkal, meaning decayed leaves or decayed matter usually of plants (DED 567). Ukkalaan means one that belongs to (lives in) decayed matter.

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Ukku’lan-ku’lam is a part of Vavuniyaa city today:

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Some related place names:

Ukkulan-kulama: The tank in the habitation area of Ukku’laan rabbits; Mihinthale division, Anuradhapura district. Seems to be a place name Sinhalicised in the last century.

First published: Saturday, 01 February 2014, 22:34