TOPONYMICAL PROBE
TRACING ONENESS OF HUMANITY
N.Nandhivarman 2005
Pondicherry is a
melting pot of various linguistic groups and cultures. Therefore it is no
surprise that lot of people from Orissa have found a haven in Pondicherry.
Trailing them to study for his research papers R.Balakrishnan I.A.S, Chief
Electoral Officer of Government of Orissa often visits Pondicherry. There is
another dimension to his visits, which is to pay respects to his teacher
Dr.Visayavenugopal of Ecole Francaise D’Extreme Orient. Mr.Balakrishnan had
presented numerous research papers and he specializes in toponymical probe.
“Place names are
fossilized representations of the past. In retracing the footprints of our
ancestral migrations, place names can be our guiding stars. Our case in this regard
is built on the foundation that the migrating people do carry their place names
and reuse them in new found homeland as a mark of continuity with past.” says
R.Balakrishnan explaining the rationale of the toponymical probe he had
ventured into.
In an article that appeared in the
International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, R.Balakrishnan throws “New
lights on ancient contacts between Kalinga and Indonesia”. A study conducted by
him revealed remarkable similarities between the place names of Java, Sumatra
and Bali regions of Indonesia on one hand and the places of Southern Orissa on
the other hand. The Chilka region of Orissa seems to have been the focal point
of Kalingan interactions with South East Asia.
Balakrishnan is serious in his research and
had done extensive travel to remote regions to draw similarities of place
names. In another research paper titled Tamil: A Toponymical Probe he had given
a long list of place names that bear the “Tam” prefixes. In a state wise
alphabetical list of Tam prefixed place names in India, he states that in
Andhra Pradesh [29], Arunachal Pradesh [11], Assam [38], Bihar [53], Gujarat
[5), Goa [1], Haryana [3], Himachal Pradesh [34], Karnataka [24], Maharastra
[120], Meghalaya [5], Manipur [14], Madya Pradesh [60], Nagaland [4], Orissa
[84], Punjab [4], Rajasthan [26], Tamil Nadu [10], Uttar Praseh [64], West
Bengal [24] with a grand total of 612 places names resembling Tamil and Tamil
influences do occur.
This research may sound
funny, but researches are always working out new avenues to trace truths of the
past. One of the pioneers of rice research in India Mr.Ramiah had identified
Jeypore region of Orissa as another independent center of origin of rice.
Subsequent researches established that broad geographical region comprising
Jharkand; Chattisgarh, Western Orissa and Jeypore tracts of Orissa satisfy the
basic requirements to claim as center of origin of cultivated rice. If one can
trace roots of rice cultivation why not trace roots of a civilization and its
spread, asks Dr.Arivunambi, Dean of Tamil Studies in Pondicherry University.
“In the Godda District of Bihar there is a
village named Tamilgoda. In that District alone there are 12 place names, which
end goda Tamilgoda is one of them. In the Puri District of Orissa a place name
called Tamilikudi draws our immediate attention. There is no need to establish
the Dravidian etymology of the suffix kudi. Tamilikudi is not an isolate case
of occurrence as there are 37 place names with kudi suffix within the administrative
boundary of Orissa.
“In the process of locating Tamil related
place names the entire list of India was scrutinized and I found a name called
Tamia in Chindwara District of Madya Pradesh. Having come across Tamilgoda and
Tamilkudi is not surprising to me. However when this name was noticed in the
surprising company of such typical Tamil place names Palani, Tekadi, Theni,
Bodi and many other geographical names that are in currency in the Madurai
region of Tamilnadu and its adjoining upcountry neighbor Idukki, its
significance and implications could be understood,” says Balakrishnan.
Another research paper titled “Toponymy of Konark”, by Balakrishnan traces
the spread of the word Kona. The place name of Konark is a combination of two
words kona and arka. A search for Kona as a place name prefix reveals as many
as 249 occurrences. Out of this Kona, a mono word place name has been used at
least in 13 places [4 in Andhra Pradesh, 3 in Uttar Pradesh, 2 in Madya Pradesh
one each in Orissa, Bihar, Haryana and Maharastra]. Kon seems to be a universal
term. ‘The primitive tribes of Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian origin use the term
as much as the speakers of Indo-Aryan do. Even the English terms such as cone,
conical based on Latin conus (derived from Greek konus) show definite affinity
with the term.
Depending on the
context, Vedic people used a number of terms to denote angle and most common of
them is Karna. The term Karna means Sun, the son of Kunti by Surya and hence
the sun nexus of the term would be obvious. Karna denoting ray or beam of light
is considered to be the basis for the Greek term Karneios that means radiant.
This establishes the nexus between the angle and ray. The Peruvian prefix Kon
means Sun and the mythical Sun king who claimed direct descent from Sun is
called Kon-Tiki. So goes on Balakrishnan identifying in Iran on the Gulf of
Oman just 3 km away from main coastline a village called Konark. About 5 kms
away from Persian Gulf he traces another village Konark. Again in the plateau of
Iran he finds Konark. The toponymical probe is a new way to establish oneness
of the human race. Deveneya Paavanar and his successor R.Madhivanan have used
etymological probes to prove that all languages emanated from one common
language. As all continents were once united in Pangea that in Latin means All
Earth, the distribution of place names across continents in another way proves
continental drift and the migration of human race from one place to another.
courtesy: The New
Indian Express -weekend-18.06-2005
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