Know the Etymology: 460
Place Name of the Day: Sunday, 06 March 2016

Mal-asna

மல் அஸ்ன
Mal-asna

Mal+asna

The hill neighbourhood

Asna

from Asan, Aasanna: near, “Sameepa” (Sinhala, Sorata); As: nearby, attached, “Sameepaya, Aththara” (Sinhala, Sorata); Asanhi: in the vicinity (Sinhala inscriptions, CDIAL 1486); Aasanna: seated, near, obtained, nearness (Sanskrit, CDIAL 1486); near (Pali, CDIAL 1486); also note Asal: nearness, border, margin, environs (Sinhala, Clough); Ayina: side, border (Sinhala, Clough); Ayal, Acal: neighbourhood, adjacent place, being foreign or alien (Tamil, DED 189). See column on Aina-gama

Mal

also Mala: hill (Sinhala, Sorata); Malai: hill, mountain (Tamil, DED 4742); Mala: mountain, raised land, hill-land (Malayalam, DED 4742); mountain (Telugu, DED 4742); Mal: the mountains of Nilgiris as opposed to the plains (Toda, DED 4742). Cognates in 12 Dravidian languages while Malaya in Sanskrit and Prakrit means only the Western Ghats of peninsular India (CDIAL 9902)

Asna usually means a seat in Sinhala, related to Aasana in Sanskrit and Pali meaning the same (CDIAL 1484).

But in the context of the place name Mal-asna, the suffix Asna seems to be meaning a neighbourhood, related to the Sinhala words, As, Asna and Aasanna. The Sinhala words correspond to Aasanna meaning near in Sanskrit and Pali (CDIAL 1486). Some other Sinhala words, Asal and Ayina also mean the same, but they find closest cognates in Ayal and Acal in Tamil/ Dravidian (DED 189).

Mal/ Mala in Sinhala meaning a hill is traced to Dravidian (DED 4742).

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Mal-asna is the name of a village in the neighbourhood of a hill in Polpithigama division of Kurunegala district.

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First published: Sunday, 06 March 2016, 08:31