165.Pangala and Bangla

Geneticists are studying variations in the human genome haplotypes to trace the evolution and migration of human beings across the continents. Similarly the words especially those antique words and place names that have remained with and migrated to different parts of the globe can be employed to trace the human migration trends. In the previous posts I have tried to demonstrate that some of the words like Tulu, Bantu, Mande, Kola, Mangala, Sira, Siri, etc are quite ancient and have migrated with human tribes from the original cradle of human civilization namely the Africa.
The Pangala is one more such place names that can be added to this list of antique words.

Pāngala
Pangala is a village on the northern bank of rivulet Pangala in Udupi Taluk and can be encountered on the coastal NH 17 while travelling from Mangalore to Udupi..The village name Pangala has been cited in specific Tulu paD-danas suggesting the historical significance of this place in the evolution of Tulunadu.
The Tulu Nighantu provides that the word Pangala means a portion or share, possibly suggesting that it could be a segment of land given as a share.
Alternately, the word can be analyzed as pa+ang+ala. The 'angala' (now means, a courtyard) must have been originally an open area ('ang') by the side of a river ('ala') as already discussed in some previous posts. Then “Pāngala” represents an stretch of an area by the riverside. The prefix 'pa-' possibly represents water or river as discussed in some of the previous posts.

Bangala
A word obviously related to Pangala is Bangal(a), Bangla or Bengal. The word is attributed to deltaic region of eastern India where Himalayan River Ganga debouches into the Bay of Bengal. The word Bangla apparently is an equivalent of Pangala with transition of consonants p.> b. The meaning of a riverside or watery land is also applicable to Bengal as is to Pangala.

Global Pangala
A search in the web provides interesting antiquity aspects of Pangala. We find that 'Pangala' villages exist in Angola and Congo regions of Africa. Similarly, Pangala can be found in Srilanka and Indonesia. It seems that the word Pangala has travelled to different regions along with the migrating human tribes in the remote past.
It would be interesting if persons having knowledge of these global Pangala villages explain us the meaning of this word in their present local languages.
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