Indian Antiquary Vol 08

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 70

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
are the same; it is not impossible that also the por of No. 11 is a modification of this per, &c.; conf. No. 3.
13. Palla, low land, a hole, a ditch, a nullah:" The root of this is pad, 'to go down, to sink', and its original form is padla (conf. palli, No. 2; and pelli, No. 3). Conf. Sk. pallala, palvala, 'a small pond', which, though reminding one of Latin pălus, 'a pool', may have been borrowed from palla.
Põllu (hollu), pottu, potě, potrě, pol, por, pulal, a hole, what is hollow', belong to a different root. Pottu, pollu, pollu, 'empty grain, husk', may be compared with Sk. puláka, pálya, ' empty grain', and also Sk. puta, putaka, a concavity, a hollow', are to be taken notice of here. English 'hollow, hole', probably is related to Sk. vi, 'to swell'; conf. súnya, 'a vacuum." 14. Pulai, pulě, polě. In looking at No.7 it will be observed that theme pul, &c., to which these words belong, does not convey the meaning of 'lowness' or 'defilement', but of 'brightness' and 'freshness.' The instances adduced there are clear; polati, polti, 'the fair she, a woman', is another one. Nevertheless, pulě or polě signifies a low condition or manner, defilement'; and its masculine form pulěya or polěy a denotes a vile man, an outcast, and its feminine pălati commonly a woman of the outcasts; in the same manner pola is beauty, gold', and 'evil.' Some may endeavour to remove this seeming incongruity all at once by having recourse to pul in its metaphorical sense (No. 9). Others might refer to pula (pulavu, pulál, pulá, Tamil) and polasu (Telugu), 'flesh' (conf. spurious Sk. pala, palala, flesh'), and explain polěya by a flesh-he, an eater of flesh', and thus for his well-known flesh-eating habits make an outcast of him; but as polěya (pulěya) is a term common to all the Dravida tribes known to me, whereas pulě (polasu), 'flesh' is not; on account of this circumstance I cannot agree to such an opinion. Pule has apparently got the meaning of flesh simply from the colour of this (conf. pushpa, the menses', &c.), and flesh was not originally something unclean either with the Aryas or Anâryas; and also many Śûdras eat flesh. If where pulě, flesh', is used, we could explain puleya to denote an eater of raw flesh," they, in their case and place, of course would not be wrong in calling him an outcast.
2 Vallum in Dr. Pope's list I consider to be a slip of the pen for villes or vallis, 'a valley', poetically a hollow.' Tuda, that appears thrice with the lingual instead of the dental d with Dr. Pope (pp. 157, 158), is a puzzle to me (conf. Dr. Caldwell's Grammar, Introd. p. 37).
3 Raw flesh is erchi in Kodagu; conf. Tamil iraichchi (conf. n), Malayala irachchi, Telugu érachi, ère, ère, flesh'; re, in Kannada, Tam., Malay., and Tel., 'a bait; a worm. Ere (or ère), in Telugu also redness'; in Kannada also 'black (or brown) soil.'
[FEBRUARY, 1879.
"
However the meaning 'lowness', vileness', &c., appears radically to belong to theme pul or pol, a curious and most interesting theme indeed, as it further means also 'to die' and 'to join' (conf. Nos. 3,7,and 9). These different meanings at least partly rest on the change in the final letter of the root. In the instance that concerns us here, we have Drav. puk, puch, to decay, to rot'; púk, 'to become mouldy'; púch, punch, 'to become nauseous, or mouldy'; púch or pús, 'to fart, to stink'; pustû, foul, stinking'; búgara, búju, búsi, 'mould, dirt.' All these themes seem to presuppose a root put or pud, 'to decay', etc., that up to this day I have not yet met with; but pud, or pod (the put of Sk. dictionaries), ' to be powdered; to be destroyed', may be connected. At all events Sk. púy, 'to become putrid, to stink'; púti, 'stink'; pus, ' matter' (conf. A.S. fül; Goth. fúls, &c.), that occur in the Atharvaveda and Brahmanas, come before the mind; are these terms Dravida, or Arya? Or is there here also simply a case of accident? If puk, &c. and púy are essentially related to one another, púy, like púk, &c., is a derivative..
At present I conjecture that pulě, polě, polasu, when conveying the meaning of 'defilement', are radically connected with theme puk, &c., but that polěya (also polěyava, polěva, pollaha) on account of some unknown historical events, has got the meaning of 'an outcast'-pole, defilement', being maliciously used for the purpose. Pulaha and Pulastya are mentioned as great Rishis in the Manavadharmasastra. In these two names the meaning of pul, to shine' (or 'to be great"), appears to be preserved. The Puleya, however, as the Pulkasa, or Paulkasa in the White Yajurveda, appears as a person of low position, but is still different from the Chânḍâla. The Pulka sa, Purkasa (Pushkasa or Pukkasa) of the dharmasdstras is a mixed caste, but not yet identified with the Chandala. According to the Aitareya Brahmana, the Pulindas, together with the Andhras, or Telugus, form a barbarian tribe descended from Visvamitra. The Amarakosha identifies Chandala, Pukka sa, and Plava, which three terms the oldest Kannada commentary on that work explains by Polo ya. That Põlĕy a (Polěra) and Plava (Plavaka with Halayudha) are the same words I hardly need to say. The Pallava (of the Trikánḍaśesha and Hemachandra) and
Compare further the names of Pulina, Puloma (Maha. bharata), Pulimant (Puranas), and Pulusha (satapatha Br.), all of which seem to bear, in their first part, the term of Dravida pul. Eight years ago Dr. H. Gundert, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, pointed out that there might be a connection between Pulěya and Sk. Pulinds, Pulkasa, and Puloman. Prof. Benfey, who in his SanseritEnglish Dictionary (1866) gives all the above proper names with the exception of Pulimant and Pulusha, has tried to explain only Pulastya, viz. by "puras + tya."