Know the Etymology: 344
Place Name of the Day: Tuesday, 06 May 2014

Nægenahira, Batahira

நெ[æ]கெ₃ணஹிர,
ப₃டஹிர

Nægeṇahira, Baṭahira

Nægena+hira
Bata+hira

The (direction of the) rising sun or the rising line, i.e., the East

The (direction of the) setting sun or the setting line, i.e., the West

Nægenahira	Also Næge'nahira: The rising sun, the direction of the rising sun, East (Sinhala); Næge'nawaa: To climb, mount, ascend, rise (Sinhala); Nægeema: Ascending, ascension (Sinhala); Nægutuwanawaa: To raise, to cause to rise (Sinhala); Nege: To rise, ascend, go upward, jump (Kannada, DED 3730); Neggu: To lift (Kannada, DED 3730); Negi: To lift (Koraga, DED 3730); Niva: To rise (Tamil, DED 3730); Ning: To rise (Konda, Pengo, Manda, Kuwi, DED 3665); Ninga: To rise, arise, stand up, act of rising, standing up (Kui, DED 3665);
Batahira	The setting sun, direction of the setting sun, West (Sinhala); Bata: Descent, going down, descent from a height, the West (Sinhala); Padu: To set as a heavenly body, perish, die, cast down, lie down to sleep (Tamil, DED 3852); Padu: To lie down, set as the sun, die (Kannada, DED 3852); To fall, lie, recline, sleep (Telugu, DED 3852); Pad: To fall, sink down, sunset (Parji, DED 3852). Cognates in 14 Dravidian languages
Hira	Also Hiri, Hiru, Ira: Sun, line, row (Sinhala); Soora: Sun (Sanskrit, Pali, Parakrit, CDIAL 13574); CDIAL compares Ceera in Sanskrit meaning strip and Seera in Sanskrit meaning plough with Hira, Hiri, Ira meaning line and streak in Sinhala (CDIAL 4843 traced to Dravidian and CDIAL 13441); Kee'ru: To draw lines (Tamil, DED 1623); Kee'r'ru: Stroke, line, mark, strip (Tamil, DED 1623); O'lik-kee'r'ru: Ray of light (Tamil, DED 1623); Gee'ru: Line, streak, stripe (Kannada, DED 1623). Cognates found in 10 Dravidian languages.

The phrases Nægenahira and Batahira, respectively meaning East and West, are widely used in Sinhala place names in marking directional divisions of a large village, town etc.

The Sinhala spelling found in official lists of village names is Nægenahira (the second N in the phrase written as dental N). But standard Sinhala dictionaries spell the term with palatal N, as Næge'nahira (Sorata).

Næge'na-hira and Bata-hira literally mean the rising sun or rising line and the setting sun or setting line, respectively. Hence they also stand for the directions, East and West.

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Næge'na, meaning rising in Sinhala, is a form of the Sinhala verb Næge'nawaa, meaning to rise, ascend, climb, mount etc. Nægeema, meaning ascending or ascension, and Nægutu-wanawaa meaning to raise or to cause to rise are some of the related Sinhala forms.

Næge is the root of these forms and relevant cognates are not found in Indo-Aryan.

The closest cognate is the verb Nege found in Kannada/ Dravidian, which means to rise, ascend, go upward and jump (DED 3730). Another verb Neggu in Kannada means to lift.

Further relevant cognates such as Negi, Ning and Ninga, meaning to rise, arise or to lift, could be seen in the other Dravidian languages, Koraga, Konda, Pengo, Manda, Kuwi and Kui (DED 3730).

Old Tamil has related cognates Niva (to rise), Nivar (to rise high), Nivappu (height) etc. (DED 3730), but the closeness of the Sinhala word with Kannada and the other Dravidian languages noted above is striking in this instance.

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Bata in Sinhala, means setting, descent, going down and descend from a height. Obviously the word is a cognate of Padu in Tamil/ Dravidian, meaning the setting of a celestial luminary such as the sun or moon, as well as meaning to perish, die, disappear, cast down, lie down etc. (DED 3852). Similar cognates, with setting as a shade of meaning, could be found in the words Padu of Kannada and Pad of Parji as well (DED 3852).

Padu meaning the setting of a celestial luminary:

“Padu chudar adaintha pakuvaay neduvarai” (Natti'nai, 33: 1)

“படு சுடர் அடைந்த பகுவாய் நெடுவரை” (நற்றிணை, 33: 1)

The long hill-range of gaping mouth (saddle of the range) reached by the setting luminary (sun in this context)

* * *

Hira and its variants, Hiru, Hiri and Ira, mean the sun in Sinhala. They also mean a line or row.

A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages (CDIAL 13574) compares the words with Soora in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, meaning the sun (S > H change). Soora is of Rig Vedic usage in Sanskrit.

For the said Sinhala words meaning a line, CDIAL (4843 and 13441), traces the Sanskrit words Ceera meaning a strip (this is traced to Dravidian by CDIAL) and Seera meaning a plough (as it makes lines).

However, the Tamil/ Dravidian word Kee'r'ru, meaning a line, strip, streak as well as a ray of light (from Kee'ru, Kee'ral, DED 1623, Geeru in Kannada), seems to be more relevant cognate, especially in relating the meaning, line, found in the Sinhala words.

* * *

Nægenahira and Batahira are often found in the Sinhala place names in marking the East –West divisions of the places. The Sinhala toponymic practice of noting the directional divisions of a place, in terms of rising and setting of the sun, is comparable to the Eezham Tamil toponymic usage Ezhuvaan-karai and Paduvaan-karai, found in Batticaloa. See column on Ezhuvaan-karai, Paduvaan-karai.

First published: Tuesday, 06 May 2014, 22:08