Know the Etymology: 371
Place Name of the Day: Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Padi-wela

படி₃ வெல
Paḍi wela

Padi+wela

The paddy fields cultivated for wages, or the paddy fields the produce of which is paid as wages to assigned persons

The stepped paddy fields

Padi 1	pay, hire, wages, income, salary (Sinhala); Padi: fixed daily allowance for food paid mostly as paddy (Tamil, DED 3849); Padi-a'laththal: payment or delivery of fixed daily allowance for food to an assigned person or persons (Tamil, DED 3849 + DED 295); from Padi: A measure of capacity used for grains etc., and also a measure of weight (Tamil, DED 3849); Padiy-aa'l: hired servant, one whose wages are paid in grain (Tamil, DED 3849); Padi: daily allowance of food, extra pay to servants when travelling, alms in kind, a small weight (Tulu, DED 3849); cognates in 7 Dravidian languages. Wages, taxes, endowments etc., in the past were largely paid as stipulated measures of un-husked rice. Paddy: un-husked grains of raw rice (English, a word of colonial origin from 16th century onwards, Hobson Jobson). The English word probably originated from Padi meaning a standard measure of un-husked rice. Padi: (verb) to dip, to immerse, to come down, to settle – the act in capacity measurement as well as the action resulting from placing a weight on the scales (Tamil, DED 3848)
Padi 2	steps, stairs (Sinhala); Padiya: step (Sinhala); Padi: step, stair, rung of a ladder, stirrup, grade, rank, sill (Tamil, DED 3850); cognates in 5 Dravidian languages; Padai: bed, layer, stratum (Tamil, DED 3852); related to Padu: (verb) to lay horizontally (Tamil, DED 3852)
Wela	paddy field (Sinhala); Veali: paddy field (Tamil, from the ridges or enclosures, Tamil, DED 5538). See earlier columns on Bandara-wela, Achchu-veali and Kangku-veali

The word Padi in Sinhala is used in two different senses of meaning.

In one sense of meaning, Padi means wages, pay, hire, income and salary, and in the other it means steps or stairs

It is common to see stepped paddy fields in the island and the concerned place, Padi-wela in Bingriya division also has a narrow, sloping strip of paddy field. However, the field here is not a convincing example to call it a terraced paddy field and it seems that the former meaning is more appropriate to the context.

The name Padi-wela for this particular place therefore seems to mean a paddy field cultivated by payment of daily wages or a paddy field, the produce of which has to be paid as daily allowances to some people for their services elsewhere. In the past there were such paddy fields assigned for the payment of daily wages to people in the service of the State, various guilds and temples.

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Padi in Sinhala, in both its senses of meaning, is identical to the same word and meanings in Tamil/ Dravidian (DED 3849, 3850).

The etymology of Padi in its first sense of meaning in Tamil and Sinhala, i.e., wages, could be traced to the word standing for a capacity measure as well as a weight measure in Tamil/ Dravidian (DED 3849).

Both as a cubic measure (a container) and weight measure (the weight stone), the noun Padi comes from the verb form of the word in Tamil/ Dravidian, meaning the act of dipping or immersing as in scooping and measuring capacity or placing a weight causing the scale to dip, come down and settle (DED 3848).

In the agrarian societies of the past, wages were paid mainly in terms of paddy and the term Padi for a standard measure became the term for wages also.

The English word Paddy for un-husked raw rice, which went into English diction during colonial times, seems to have come from Padi in Dravidian.

The etymology of the other meaning, steps or stairs for the noun Padi in Tamil and Sinhala, is related to the verb root Padu in Tamil/ Dravidian, meaning to lay horizontally (DED 3852). Another related noun is Padai in Tamil, meaning a bed, layer or stratum (DED 3852).

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Padi meaning daily allowances for food delivered out of a produce:

“Madi illaan chelvam poal maran nantha, ach chelvam padi u'npaar nukarchchi poal pal chinai migni'ru aarppa” (Kaliththokai, 35: 1-2)

“மடி இல்லான் செல்வம் போல் மரன் நந்த, அச் செல்வம் படி உண்பார் நுகர்ச்சி போல் பல் சினை மிஞிறு ஆர்ப்ப” (கலித்தொகை, 35: 1-2)

Like the wealth of a tireless person the tree blossomed, and like the enjoyment of some people eating daily allowances of food coming from such a wealth, the honeybees in the numerous branches of the tree buzzed (cheered with joy).


Padi meaning step or stair:

“Asumpil padu kadung ka'li'r'rin varuththam choliya, pidi padi mu'rukkiya peru marap poosal” (Akanaanoo'ru, 8: 9-11)

“அசும்பில் படு கடுங் களிற்றின் வருத்தம் சொலிய, பிடி படி முறுக்கிய பெரு மரப் பூசல்” (அகநானூறு, 8: 9-11)

The big sound of a falling tree, caused by the female elephant snapping the tree to lay stair for the fierce male elephant fallen in the watery pit and to free it from its suffering

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Padi-wela is a place having paddy fields in the Bingiriya division of Kurunegala district.

First published: Tuesday, 14 October 2014, 13:11