Sunday, April 11, 2010

237. Madhu and Maddu

Are the words ‘madhu’ (=honey), ‘madira’(=spirit) and ‘maddu’ (medicine) etc are related in origin or derived from a common ancient root?
While travelling from Bantval to Guruvayankere on a routine journey , my mind happened to brood over the place name ‘Maddadka’ ( pron: ‘maddaDka’). The spatial suffix ‘aDka’ refers to a field with trees (aD+ka) used as burial field in ancient days. Then what is ‘madda’?
Maddadka and Maddur
We can see that ‘madd’ prefix has been used in several place-names such as ‘Maddur’ (a town near Mandya on Mysore-Bangalore road). ‘Maddya’ (madd+iya) village near Surathkal, Mangalore, sometimes confused as ‘Madhya’(=central) also carries the prefix ‘madd’. The Madhur or Madavoor towns Kerala also have this prefix.There is a Madh island in Mumbai. Madanoor is a village in Surapur Taluk, Gulabrga district.
Madhura
But these are not the only ones: The famous ancient towns of ‘Madhurai ‘in Tamilnadu and ‘Mathura’ in Gujarath also belong to this group. Are the ‘madda’ and ‘madhu’ in these place names related? Does the word ‘madda’ represents the ‘maddu’ the medicine or something else?
Maddadka, =madda+adka
Maddur+=madd+uru
Madavoor =mada+oor.
Madanoor = madana+oor.
Madhya, =madd+iya
Madhur =madh+ur
Madhure=madh+ure
Madhura=madh+ura
Mardu.> maddu
Thus we arrive at a point where we compare Dravidian word ‘maddu’(=medicine) with Sanskrit ‘madhu’(=honey). The Tulu word ‘mardu’(=herbal medicine) appears to be an old form of ’maddu’ (=medicine). The origin of ‘mardu’ may be ‘mara+du’ or derived from the tree or plants. The root word ‘mad(du)’ is also apparently shared by the root word ‘med’ in the Latin word ‘medicine’.
Check some of the words connected with ‘matt’ and ‘madd’ (relevant to aspects of mind like intellect, spirit and enthusiasm)cited in Tulu Lexicon:
.mata=1.opinion, doctrine; 2.semen, testicles (of cattle);
.mati=intellect, common sense, consciousness.
.mattu= intoxication, arrogance.
.mathana=extraction
.mMatsara= envy, jealousy.
.matsya=[mat+sya] fish.
.mada= pride, arrogance, passion. spirit, enthusiasm, ego
Madana=cupid, God of love and sexuality.
.madey= screen to hide, partition.
.madapu= to forget
.madipu= to think, to reason, to evaluate
.madime= wedding, bondage of marriage .
.madumaye, madumal= bridegroom, bride; persons getting into marital bondage.
.madhu= honey, sugar, sweet, spirit.
.madira= intoxicating liquid, spirit.
.madhura=sweet taste or feeling.
.madya= spirit, intoxicating liquid.
.maddu=medicine. (note: ‘med’ in medicine).
.mardu= herbal medicine (mara+du).

The interconnected relationship among these words suggest possibly borrowing of roots and words between Dravidian and Sanskrit.
MaDi
A related word is 'maDi'(=clean). The maDDi/maD could represent muddy soil- place or marshy area.
MaDivaala/maDDele = washerman, who cleans soiled cloths or 'maDD(i)' or 'mala' from clothes. MalaD in Mumbai is marshy sea-coastal area and 'Mud Island' is a nearby place. Mal/mala is also means rocky highland. There is a place-name in Sinhala: 'Maddaka'lappu'. Tamilnet analyzes the place name as muddy lagoon: 'madda'(=muddy)+'kaLappu' (=lagoon or backwaters).
Similarly,
Madgaon (Goa) possibly means a village with a pond or marsh.
Thus,in Tulu/Kannada usage:
maDu= a lake or pond.
Madaka or 'madaga'= muddy or marshy lake or pond.

Apparently, more insights on the 'madhu /madd' place names, from the stand point of historical evolution of words, are desirable.If you have any alternate or additional insights please send your inputs.
**
Mada tribes
The ancient towns Mathura and Madurai appear to have been based on the word ‘madhu’(= honey or spirit) while Dravidian place names Maddur, Maddadka etc seem to have been based on ‘maddu’, the medicine. However, the later analysis looks somewhat untenable as such a style of naming places is not in tune with usual Dravidian place names.
Commenter Akhtarali has pointed out possible links to Medes tribes, also known sometimes as Māda. A grandson of Noah was called Madai . That leads us to conclude that ‘Madda’ or ‘Māda’ tribes made their presence in Dravidian lands of southern India. Māda is a common tribal name in Kannada areas even now, often confused as a corrupt form of Mahadeva. And even the ancient words ‘Madha/Madh’ in place names ‘Madhura/Matura’ might be related to the variants of the ethnonym : 'mada',‘madda’ or ‘māda’.
There is another Indian ethnonym connected to ‘Meir Rajputs’ also known as ‘Medes’. Some of the surnames of Meir Rajputs like Bagel, Odar are shared by Munda tribes also. Their surnames Dhuma Gund, Manj(a), etc are some of the common names among tribes of Tulunadu. This makes us ponder if Meir Rajputs and Mera tribes of Dravidian territory were related tribes during ancient days.

- With H.Vishwanath
®

6 comments:

  1. And what you say about
    1- mad , amada,amad,mada and maha mad
    2-matta ,maha mad gah maidan
    I found ur blog searching Munda
    Tribe and a same quesdtion what you say
    About
    1- munda the place present many
    2 -moor munda ,Maha Munda Mundaur Manndo
    Manda manglor mundan mandal
    My address
    drakhtaralimph@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not clear, what exactly you mean!
    Please explain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mada ,Amada,Amad maha mad are all
    Ancient MEDES and Matta, Maidan and
    Maha mad gah etc are the places of my
    Region
    Maha Munda Mormand(federation of
    Moorya and Munda tribe)Mando Mandur
    (Fed.of Munda and Ur of mesopatomia
    Tribes)
    Mandan, Munda(many)Mandal etc are the
    Names of places present in my region

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's interesting on the relativity of words there, you might also want to consider the following,

    Oratunu - to Orate
    Gumpu - Group
    gaasip - Gossip


    In the kannada magazine Sudha, somewhere around 1975 - 1980 one of the Tulu researcher published a list of words similar in meaning and sound to the English counterpart. If anybody has access to the archives of Sudha magazine and has the patience to dig you will find the article, very interesting - has a finding in an archeological site in South America they found Tulu play something like that.

    I myself am not able to read/write Kannada, my mother used to read it for me, if there was anything interesting like this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes there are related words in different languages.You might have also read 'Tulu and Italian' in this blog by Narayana Shetty.
    This could be due to the fact that languages evolved from common source in the beginning.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive

Books for Reference

  • A Comparative Study of Tulu Dialects By Dr. Padmanabha Kekunnaya. Govinda Pai Reserach Centre, UDupi. 1994
  • Koti Chennaya: Janapadiya Adhyayana. By Dr. Vamana Nandavar. Hemanshu Prakashana ,Mangalore.2001.
  • Male kudiyaru. Dr B. A.Viveka Rai and D.Yadupathi Gowda, Mangalore University,1996.
  • Mogaveera Samskriti By Venkataraja Punimchattaya. Karnataka Sahitya Academy.1993.
  • Mugeraru:Jananga Janapada Adhyayana. By Dr Abhaya Kumar Kaukradi.Kannada & Culture Directorate,Bangalore & Karnataka Tulu Academy, Mangalore,1997.
  • Puttubalakeya Pad-danagalu. Ed: Dr B.A.Viveka Rai,Yadupati Gowda and Rajashri, Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Tulu Peeta. Mangalore University.2004
  • Se'erige. Ed:Dr K.Chinnapa Gowda.Madipu Prakashana,Mangalagangotri,2000.
  • Studies in Tuluva History and Culture.by Dr P Gururaja Bhat (1975).Milagres College,Kallinapur,Udupi.
  • Taulava Sanskriti by Dr.B.A.Viveka Rai, Sahyadri Prakashana,Mysore 1977
  • TuLu naaDu-nuDi By Dr.PalthaDi Ramakrishna Achar, Puttur.
  • TuLu NighanTu. (Editor in Chief: Dr U.P.Upadhyaya, Govinda Pai Research Centre,Udupi. Six volumes. 1988 to 1997
  • Tulu Patero-A Philology & Grammar of Tulu Language by Budhananda Shivalli.2004.Mandira Prakashana Mangalore. p.317. (The book is in Tulu Language using Kannada script)
  • TuLunadina ShasanagaLa Sanskritika Adhyayana. By Shaila T. Verma (2002) Jnanodaya Prakashana,Bangalore, p.304.(Kannada)
  • Tuluvala Baliyendre. Compiled by N.A.Sheenappa Hegde,Polali,Sri Devi Prakashana,Parkala,1929/1999

A Coastal estuary

A Coastal estuary
Holegadde near Honavar,Uttara Kannada dist, Karnataka

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