'Mande-kakke' in Tulu represents rather unusual large headed crow that makes slightly different sound compared with the ordinary crow. The word 'mande' being equivalent of English 'head', in general sense, people generally think that 'mande-kakke' refers to crows with slightly larger or prominent head !
However, the actual meaning and origin of the word 'manDe' could be different!
Mandekolu
Mandekolu is an unusual sounding village name from Sullia district in the foot hills of Western Ghat .Mande-kolu for an ordinary analysis represents 'head – rod', a meaningless name. However, the meaning of the word becomes clear when we analyse these words as derived from the tribal names. The Mande and the Kols refer to tribal groups that pervaded these regions in the past. A sub-group of Kol tribes from Mande origin could have been known as Mande Kols during the undated early history.
Mandechar is the name of another Mande village from the Sullia taluk.
Mande
Mande is an ethnic group of Western Africa. Mande people of Niger-Congo region of Africa have their own set of languages. Two major episodes of environmental changes resulting in the increasing spread of deserts in Africa, ca.2000 BC and ca.100BC to 200 CE prompted Mande and Bantus to migrate to better areas. The recurrence of both these words in our language leads us to suggest that some of these tribes actually migrated and settled in our lands in the past.
Other evidences of existence of Mande people in Tulunadu exist in the form of Mande-Koraga, a sub-group among Koraga tribes.
The Garo tribes of Meghalaya,Assam and Bangladesh also call themselves Achik, Mande or Achik-Mande. Achik means hill and Mande means people in Garo language.
Kol
Kols were another ancient tribes that distributed in different parts of peninsular India. There are numerous place-names that embody the word 'Kol' or 'Koll'. Kolar, Kolur, Kollur, Kolnad, Kolchar, Kollamogaru, Kolya, etc. Kol tribes may have ben known as Kollis during later history.Kol tribes were said to be experts in metal smelting during early part of the civilization. Kollis are known as fishermen in parts of Maharastra and interior Karnataka even today.
The origin of the word 'Kol' appears to be a Turkish word that means valley region between rivers.
Mandya
In the similar line, the place-name of Mandya (Karnataka ) could have possibly been derived from the name of Mande tribes.
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A heritage blog by: Ravindra Mundkur & Hosabettu Vishwanatha
I'm not sure how you are going to support such long distance relationship between Africa, Siberia and India. We need to add East Asians and Europeans too as it goes back to that remote past.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am not entirely sure whether the Nostratic etymology could be interpreted as of Turkish origin. Anyway, Nostratic means the origin could be in Central Asian region... or somewhere close to that. But it's still interesting to find 'kolli' meaning bay is observed only in west coastal Dravidian languages beloning to SD-1.
The amount of research you have done is damn impressive. I wish you could write a little more about yourself so that communicating would be easier.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few things I would like to ask you on this topic. This has been my favourite subject right from the beginning.
Manju,I believe that human historical migrations confirmed by science support my 'weird' sounding suggestions.The historical migrations theoretically could have been from any region.But an African epicenter has more scientific proofs.Only I am trying to trace some of those indistinct strings, especially based on the word-fossils. I exactly do not know: the word 'Kol' might have been traveled more,including the regions you suggested.
ReplyDeleteSuchi, thank you for the good words.About me? Ha,I am not yet part of the history.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to write your questions,impressions,comments etc.This is an open-source, open-minded platform for all those who have feelings for the heritage and the history.