Know the Etymology: 443
Place Name of the Day: Sunday, 24 January 2016

Haaliyaa-mulla, Saaliyaa-gama

ஹாலியாமுல்ல, ஸாலியாக₃ம
Hāliyā-mulla, Sāliyā-gama

Haaliyaa+mulla
Saaliyaa+gama

The cinnamon peeler's corner or the weaver's corner

The village of cinnamon peelers or weavers

Haali1	(plural), Haaliyaa: (singular) cinnamon peeler (Sinhala, Clough); Chaaliyaa: cinnamon peelers; Salaagama: another name for the people of Chaaliya caste (Sinhala, Clough). See box on Saaliyaa 1 for etymology.
Haali2	= S'aali: a kind of paddy (Sinhala, Clough). See box on Saali and also column on Æl-liyadda
Saaliyaa1	from Chaaliyaa, Haaliyaa: cinnamon peeler (Sinhala); Saali: tree bark, strip, “Patura, Gaswala-patta, Tahaduwa,” (Sinhala, Sorata); Choli: (verb) to strip off, peel off, tear (Tamil, Changkam diction, DED 2856); Soli: (verb) to peel (Kannada, DED 2856); Suli: (verb) to peel off, to remove as the bark or skin (Kannada, Tulu, DED 2856); Challi: bark (Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, probably non-Aryan, says, CDIAL 5005); Choali, Sooli, Chooli: skin, bark, rind (Tulu, DED 2740); Cuguli: rind of a fruit or vegetable (Tulu, DED 2740); Choo'li: scales of fish, skin of a jackfruit (Malayalam, DED 2740); Soale: skin of a snake, coat of an onion (Kannada, DED 2856); Toli, Tolpu: = Suli (Tulu, DED 2856); Oliyal: skin (Tamil, DED 1000); Thoal: skin (Tamil, DED 3559); Tholi: to strip off as bark (Tamil, DED 3559). Note the S/ Ch >< Th interchanges.
Saaliyaa2	weaver, “Peheru” (Sinhala, Sorata); Chaaliyar: a caste of weavers; Chaaliyan: weaver (Tamil, Malayalam, DED 2475); Chaalikan: = Chaaliyan (Tamil, DED 2475); Saaliya, Saaliga: weaver (Kannada, DED 2475); Saalye: caste of weavers (Tulu, DED 2475); Saale: caste of weavers (Telugu, DED 2475); Chaal: furrow in ploughing (Tamil, DED 2471); furrow, channel, track, line, direction (Malayalam, DED 2471); Chaalai: street, avenue, road (Tamil, DED 2471); Saal: a continuous line, furrow (Kannada, DED 2471); Saalu: line, row, furrow (Tulu, DED 2471); Caalu: line row, furrow, groove, track (Telugu, DED 2471). See columns on Ha'lu-appullana-wæwa and Dæla-thura
Saali	= S'aali, Haali 2, Æl-vee: a kind of paddy (Sinhala, Clough, Sorata); Saal, Haal: rice in general (Sinhala, Sorata); Hali: furrow, agriculture (Sinhala, Clough); Chaal: furrow in ploughing (Tamil, DED 2471); reference to the practice of agriculture in general (Tamil, Changkam diction, Natti'nai, 340: 7). Note the basic meaning furrow/ track/ line for Chaal going to agriculture as well as weaving. See box on Saaliyaa2 and column on Æl-liyadda.

The word Haaliyaa in Sinhala means a cinnamon peeler, notes Clough's Sinhala dictionary. But the word could also be a form of Saaliyaa, meaning a weaver (Sorata).

Haaliyaa (plural: Haali), in meaning a cinnamon peeler, corresponds to Chaaliyaa, the caste name for cinnamon peelers in Sinhala. Again, Chaaliyar is a caste of weavers in Tamil.

In contemporary Sinhala, the most commonly used term to refer to the caste of cinnamon peelers is Salaagama. The prefix Salaa stands for the cinnamon peeling profession and the suffix has come from belongingness to caste-based settlements of people engaged in cinnamon peeling in the past, or from Gam meaning community or caste in Sinhala (“Samuhaya, Kulaya”: Sorata, appendix).

There is an opinion that the cinnamon peelers were originally weavers. Probably, the similarity in the terms of identification could have led to a conflation. But etymology shows that the terms meaning the two different professions come from two different etyma.

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In meaning the profession of cinnamon peeling, Chaali, Haali and Salaa in Sinhala correspond to another Sinhala word Saali, meaning tree bark (Patura = Gasvala-patta, notes Sorata).

In turn, the Sinhala terms are cognates of the Dravidian verbs, Choli (old Tamil), Soli (Kannada) and Suli (Tulu and Kannada), meaning to peel off, and the Dravidian nouns, Choali, Sooli, Chooli (Tulu), Soale (Kannada) and Choo'li (Malayalam), meaning bark or skin (DED 2856, 2740).

The Sanskrit/ Pali/ Prakrit cognate, Challi, meaning bark is probably non Indo-Aryan, notes A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages (CDIAL 5005). The verbs are found in Dravidian.

The said Dravidian terms also correspond to Thoal (noun, Tamil) and Tholi (verb, Tamil), meaning skin and to stripe off as bark respectively (DED 3559; Ch/ S >< Th interchange).

It is very likely that the identity of cinnamon peelers in the island had come from terms related to bark and peeling of bark. The cinnamon tree is native to the island, mostly found in the wet zone. It is also found in the Western Ghats of South India. See box Saaliyaa 1 to find closer cognates of relevant words in the Dravidian tongues of Western Ghats.

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Choli as noun meaning bark:

“Kazhai padu choli” (Pu'ra:naanoo'ru, 383: 10)

“கழை படு சொலி” (புறநானூறு, 383: 10)

The inner bark of bamboo


Choli as verb meaning to peel off:

“Chuzhal maram choliththa chu'laku alai ve'n kaazh” (Aka:naanoo'ru, 393: 10)

“சுழல் மரம் சொலித்த சுளகு அலை வெண் காழ்” (அகநானூறு, 393: 10)

The white grains, peeled off of husk by wooden rollers and then winnowed

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Saaliyaa, in meaning a weaver in Sinhala, is related to Chaaliyar in Tamil/ Malayalam, Saaliya in Kannada, Saalye in Tulu and Saale in Telugu, meaning the same. The terms are listed as Dravidian (DED 2475).

Saali also means a kind of paddy in Sinhala, while Saal/ Haal means rice in general. They correspond to Chaali meaning paddy in Tamil and S'aali meaning the same in Sanskrit.

In these cases, Chaal in Dravidian, meaning a furrow in ploughing, a line, track, row etc., (DED 2471) seems to be a common etymon for the terms related to both the professions of agriculture and weaving.

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Haaliyaa-mulla is in Rideegama division of Kurunegala district.

Saaliyaa-gama is a village in Polpithigama division of Kurunegala district.

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Some related place names:

Haali as cinnamon peelers:

Haali-wala: The cinnamon peelers' forest; Akmeemana division, Galle district

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Saaliya: (cinnamon peeler/ weaver/ paddy)

Saaliya Maawatha: Nuwaragam Palatha division, Anuradhapura district

Saaliya-pura: Nuwaragam Palatha division, Anuradhapura district; Thissamaharama division, Hambantota district; Lunugamvehera division, Hambantota district

Saaliya-wæwa: Karuwalagaswewa division, Puththa'lam district

Saaliyaala: Kuliyapitiya division, Kurunegala district

First published: Sunday, 24 January 2016, 10:17