Ancient
village names in some cases may provide valuable hints on the incidents and
events that took place in the past, especially where inscriptions are
scanty. I some of the older posts in
this blog, we have shown prevalence of strange diverse tribal signatures or
even words derived from exotic lands from which the tribes immigrated.
Buddhism in Tulunadu
Buddhism
originated in India a few centuries before Christ and spread all over India and
neighboring countries during the early centuries of Common Era. Evidences of spread of Buddhism during historical past can be inferred in
Karavali/Tulunadu also. Kadri in Mangaluru was said to be known as “Kadarika Vihara” where Vihara meant a
Buddhist monastery. Similarly one of the old names of Mangaluru, Mayikala
suggests a “kala” (a plot, quadrangle or shrine) dedicated to mother Māyi. The Māyi was the mother of Siddartha, the Buddha. The worship of
Buddha’s mother was prevalent in ancient India.
In this
post, we shall look into an unusual set of place names that hint at the
influence of a celebrated Buddhist monk who visited parts of India during
eleventh century CE.
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| Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097) |
Marpa Lotsawa
(1012-1097)
The
Buddhist monk in this case is Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097). The
Tibetan monk is credited with transmission of many of the Buddhist tenets from
India to Tibet (and maybe vice versa). It is recorded that he visited a number of places in India several times in
connection with spreading Buddhism.
Marpa˜ villages
The
village near Mudbidri is known as Mārpadi. Similarly, near Udupi we have a
Mārpalli. Both these villages (Marpa+aDi
and Marpa+palli) are named after the
celebrated teacher Marpa. The name Marpa is of Tibetan origin. Even now there
are Tibetans having Marpa as a part of their names.
The
term “marpa” does not exist or have any straight meanings in Tulu or Kannada. Some may argue
hazily that marpa is a Kannada word, assuming that it is mār+pa,
which may give obscure meaning such as:
sale-able. However, it should be noted that this is not a place exclusive
either to Tulunadu or Kannada regions.
Marpa
villages in India
There
are some 39 villages in India known either as Marpa or carrying the prefix of
Marpa or Marapa (as in Marpalli).
These villages are distributed in Andhra Pradesh (Marpalle, Marapalle,
Marpaka, Marpadaga), Bihar (Marpa, Marapa),
Chattisgarh (Marpa), Jharkhand (Marpa), Madhya Pradesh (Marpani), Maharashtra
(Marpalli), Meghalaya (Marpara, Marapara), and Mizoram (Marpara).
Since
these different areas have different languages other than Dravidian, suggestion
that mar-pa was a word of Dravidian
origin is untenable. In all the villages names cited (source: Census of India, 2011)
the name used as prefix is Marpa or Marapa. It seems that Marpa Lotsawa was a
celebrated monk wherever he went in India and the places he stayed for some
period, were named after him.
Besides,
it seems the name Marpa was familiar in Tulunadu since the visit of Marpa
Lotsawa. Even now you can find people named as Mārappa in villages of Tulunadu.
Analysis
It is agreed that there
are numerous possibilities when words in place names are taken up for analysis.
Each word has numerous dimensions and meanings, since there is amalgamation of
several diverse individual cultures over the prolonged historical lineage.
In this post, I have analysed the village
names Marpalli and Marpadi as Marp+(p)alli and Marpa+aDi respectively, considering that different regions
in India have had shared history as well as village names(as reported in several
of our older posts).
On the other hand, for
example, mār in Tulu also means a paddy field (Bākimār, Mālemār etc).
If you analyze these two Tulu
place names (Marpalli and Marpadi) from Tulu/ Dravida language context :
Marpalli (1.paddy
field +village; or 2. A mosque in a paddy field)
Marpadi (mār=paddy field+
pādi =mini forest).
The odd connotations in
the above analysis such as a village or wooded area within a paddy field do not
appear logical to me.
There are other meanings
for the word Māra such as (1) cupid and (2) Vishnu. The names of people having names like Marappa could have this line of origin also from the names of cupid or Vishnu.
It is interesting to note
that the spread of these Marpa places is along a specific travel path in
eastern and southern India. The overall distribution of the Marpa villages
outline a contiguous travel track from Tibet-(Nepal)- Bihar-
Jharkhand-Chattisgarh- that further split into two tracts of:
(1) Andhra-Maharashtra-Karnataka-Tulunad and
(2) (Bengal) -
Assam-Meghalaya- Mizoram.
It appears that there
were two lines of journeys of Marpa Lotsawa and his followers in 11th
century CE from Jharkhand- Chattisgarh one towards South (and Southwest) and
another towards Northeast.
**
If you have any positive evidences in favor of or against my arguments please comment here in
a healthy spirit.
R
