216. Permanki

Some of the village names sound funny and do not have ready meanings even among the natives of those villages. One such hamlet name is Per(a)manki, located in Ulaibettu village on the banks of River Gurupur, near Neermarga and Mallur, in Mangalore Taluk.
The word ‘Permanki’ can be analyzed as follows:
In this place name, the Dravidian prefix ‘peru’ has been combined with ‘manki’. Peru or peri =large, big. Periya> hiriya= larger, bigger or elder. (There are several villages in Tulunadu carrying the prefix 'peru', like Pervaaje, Perankila, Perara, Perdur, Peramoger, Periadka, Peramannur etc.)
And we can attribute a meaning for the word ‘manki’ based on the line of analyses followed in earlier posts.
Manki= ma+anki= an elevated place.
Therefore, 'Permanki' stands for a large village located on a elevated ground or plateau.
Manki
The second word unit, namely Manki is an independent village name. We have a Manki village near Honnavar, Uttar Kannada district. The word ‘manki’  is a large settlement or a village in Munda cultural scenario and Munda language.
Suffix -ki
The word ‘manki’ emphasizes the existence of an ancient suffix -ki as a spatial attribute. It must be ancient one and discontinued later because it is not found in later or current Dravidian place names. However, it exists in some of the older place names like Neranki,Haleneranki,Parenki, Karenki(Dakshina Kannada),Karki, Valki (Uttara Kannada ), Bhalki (Bidar) etc.
Suffix –gi and –angi
Besides, we find another variant of suffix-ki in the form of –gi (or –angi) in Shimoga and surrounding regions. Ucchangi, Bhadrangi, Devangi, etc.Examples for places with suffix-'gi', are mostly found in Uttara Kannada and Uttar Karnataka: Balgi,Bargi,Biligi, Divgi, Byadagi, Nimbergi, Nesargi, Kalghatgi,Kushtagi, etc
Antiquity of words
The Karavali and contiguous parts of southern India have preserved many fossil words in the form of place names bearing testimony to numerous ancient tribes that sauntered and lived across this vast land. Although we find numerous fossil words as well as regional variants of some of these words, it is difficult task at this stage to pinpoint and classify the tribes and the words (languages) used by them.
Another possible way of establishing the antiquity of the words is to search for similar words (place names) in other parts of the world especially along known routes of human migration.
We find that  Manki as a place name exists even in Swat region (North West Frontier Province), Pakistan, in the islands of Papua New Guinea and in Poland. The Gandhar region (present Pakistan and Afghanistan) have been known as one of the ancient routes of immigration into India. Similarly the Papua New Guinea has been described as one of the early centers of human civilization outside Africa.
The strings of data discussed above establish that ancient words such as ‘manki’ have been carried to different places by the migrating human tribes.
Manki stand
There is one 'Manki' stand near Mangaladevi Temple, Mangalore.In the absence Of proper explanation, some people might have thought of this as 'monkey stand'! Now, the name 'Manki'(=elevated area) tallies with the other alternate names existing for the Old Mangalore area such as 'Mangaar'(ma+ang+ar=elevated open field). The old name 'Mangar' for the area, later became 'Mangal' and 'Mangala'probably between 6th to 8th Century CE. Yet it is interesting to note that both the ancient place names, 'Mangaar' (near Yemmekere)and 'Manki'(near Mangaladevi temple) have survived.

-With Hosabettu Vishwanath
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