Friday, January 31, 2014

330. Manki: Village names in India

There is a place known as ‘Manki stand’ near Mangaladevi Temple in Mangalore. The place acquired the epithet of ‘stand’ since it was used as station for ‘Jataka’ (Horse carriage) during the British administration period in Mangalore. I used to think that the name was Monkey till I found that place names like Manki exist in other places for example near Honnavar in Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka. Similarly there is a village known as Permanki near Gurupur and Ulaibettu.

Etymology
Manki is a term connected with Munda tribes of Austro-Asiatic origin who were spread in diverse parts of India in the pre-Dravidian antiquity but presently restricted to parts of Bihar, Chattisgad, Orissa and Bengal. The term Manki represents a village or a habitation.
Thus the village name Permanki means a large village since pera means large in Dravidian languages also.

Manki Villages in India
Bihar: Manki, Mankidih, Mankiman
Chattisgarh: Manki
Jharkhand: Mankidih, Manki Bazar,
Karnataka:  Manki, Permanki,
Madhya Pradesh: Manki, Manki Salaiya, Mankiyai, Mankisar,Manki Ryt
Maharastra; Manki, Mankivalli
Meghalaya: Mankingiri
Orissa: Mankiria,Mankididihi, Mankidia, Mankidi
Punjab: Manki, Mankinvalli,
Rajastan: Manki, Mankiyas
Uttar Pradesh: Manki, Mankikhurd, Mankikalan, Mankiari.

Austro-Asiatic Munda tribes
The wide distribution of place names containing the term Manki and other place names containing Munda as prefix or suffix suggest that  habitations of Munda tribes were distributed all over India once upon a time probably before the advent and dominance of Dravidians in Southern India .


®

No comments:

Post a Comment