204. Agricultural settlements

Early human progress from forest life to farming and agriculture was considered to have been initiated some 6000 BC in Nile Valley region that hosted Sumerian civilization. Archeo-botanical studies have similarly suggested that agricultural culture was in vogue in southern India since 5000 BC.
The available data suggests that during that period Austro-Asiatics or Munda group of tribes prevailed in southern India and along the Karavali. Let us analyse the origin of place names like Nitte, Nitila, Nittur,Niddodi, Nidiyur,Nidambur, Nidle, Nidpalli,Nidikallu,Nettana,Nettaru, Nettara Padavu, Nettanige, etc.in the context of evolution of farming and agricultural cults in the Karavali.

neDu
A number of village names in Karavali suggest distinctly the initiation of agricultural practices in Karavali. ‘neDu is now a popular Dravidian word that means to plant seedling in Tulu, Kannada and other sister languages .
The word ‘neDu’ (ne+Du) originated as ‘ne’=to plant (or to straighten up a plant) in the (‘Da’,’Du’ or its variants ‘Ta’,’Te’ ) earth. ‘Da ‘ or ‘Ta’ has been cited as a word from Munda languages that represented the land, village or the habitation (Southworth, 2005).
naTTi
The word ‘naT’ was an variant of the agricutural word ‘neD’, as we see ‘naTTi’ represents the act of planting the crops.
naTT= (1) to plant.

nāDu vs. kāDu
Thus it follows that the word ‘nāDu’ (=land,country) was derived from ‘neDu’, or ‘naDu’ to plant. naDu.>nāDu.
nāDu= (1)cultivated land
The word ‘nāDu’ was invented by the early farming community as against the word ‘kāDu’(=forest,wilderness). Thus it is clear that prefix ‘na-‘ represents cultivation whereas ‘ka’- stands for wilderness or wild trees.
nāDava
The person associated with cultivation (farmer) or the one who lives in the cultivated region (nāDu) became known as ‘naDava’. The suffix va- represents habitation (cf. Post 197)
naDu, naDe
Cultivating crops became important activity of the civilized word. Thus the word ‘naDu’ (middle,central) became representative of the central or middle part of body or any object. Walking straight on two legs on the land was distinctly a progressive trait of civilized tribes, as compared to wild animals, therefore ‘naDe’ also stood for walking,behaviour or even the cattle owned by the civilized tribes.

Nitte & other farming villages
An older variant of the word ‘neDu’ was ‘niDu’ or ‘niTu’ as we see in the village name Nitte. Nitte is a popular educational centre near Karkala that has bloomed into an esteemed University.
Nitte : (niT+Te ). Ni= to collect seeds. niT= to plant seedlings,to straighten up (as in ‘nidpa’) Te=village. During early days of civilization ‘Nitte’ was also a proper name among tribals that obviously meant farmer!
Nitila :The word ‘niT’ repeats in other similar place names like Nitila (niT+ila, ila=village). Nittur(niTT+oor)
Nettila: neT=to cultivate; ila=village
Niddodi: (niD+oDi)niD=to cultivate; oDi=village.
NiDiyur: (niDi+ oor) . niD=to cultivate; oor=village. There are Tenka Nidiyur and Bada Nidiyur near malpe.(tenka=southern, baDa= northern).
Nidpalli: niD=to cultivate; palli=village.
Nidle: niD=to cultivate; le=village by the side of river.
Nettana: neTT+aNa. cultivated area.
Nettara: neTT+ ara. Cultivated open field.
Nettanige: neTT+aN+ige. Cultivated area + plains.
Nadsal: (naD+sa+al). Cultivated habitation beside a stream or river. Nadsal is a coastal village /locality near Padubidri.
Nadpal: (naD+pa+al). Cultivated area beside a river.Nadpal is a village in interior Karavali nearthe Ghats.


Humour
Tinges of humour can be delineated in the evolution of parallel words with slightly derisive meanings. For example, agriculture became a new-found passion among the evolving tribes that enterprising ones went on searching for new pastures suitable for cultivating crops. Thus the word nāD ( as in ‘nāDuni’) became equivalent of searching.
nāD=(2) to search.
Further getting the proper seeds for cultivating crops was not easy during those days. It often involved begging another person to part with seeds or seedlings under his custody. Thus we have the word nat( as in ‘naTTuni’)
naTT =(2) to beg!
®