259. Bekanata and Paisachi

A mysterious and rather unscrutable, word cited in Rigveda, the Bekanata, has spurred imaginations of several researchers even though satisfactory meaning and explanation for the word has remained elusive. According to some investigators ‘Bekanata’ was an ancient name of Karnataka! Yet , some authors have tried to identify Bekanata with Bikaner.

 A stanza in Rigveda (6.4-31-5) cited by Varadaraja Umarji runs as follows-

“Indro vishvān bekanāTan ahadrushya

Utakritvā paNirabhi “

The cited stanza describes that Indra, the king of Gods, won over Bekanata and Phani merchants.

Phani (or Pani, Panab or Panamb) were known to be a merchant class of tribes that evidently lived during the period of Rigveda (ca.1700-1500 BC). Pani tribes lived all over India including many parts of West Coast. The place names like Panvel (Maharastra), Panaji (Goa), Paniyur, Paniyadi, Panambur, Panapila, Panaje, Panakaje, Pāner (Karavali Karnataka) have survived as fossil indicators of the lost merchant tribes of Panis.The word pāne in place name ‘Pāne Mangalur’ (‘PāNer’ in Tulu) is also apparently related to the Pani tribes.

The word ‘paNi’ gave rise to ‘paNa’ and later ‘haNa’ (=money, the medium of trade transaction) and also ‘vani’ and ‘Vanija’ (=merchant). A merchant community is known as ‘Vani Shetty’ in Uttar Kannada.

However the other word ‘Bekanata’ has been disputed.

Varadaraja Umarji (1909-86) in his work on the history of Prakrit poets of Karnataka*, states that ‘Bekanata’ means two ‘kanata’s. According to him be=two and Kanata = large country. He suggests that two large countries were ancient Karnataka and Chola country of ancient Tamilnadu. Umarji also cites opinion of Muliya Thimmappayya who has suggested in his work on ‘Nadoja Pampa’ that Bekanata was the land of Pishachis, the ancient Karnataka. According to Thimmappayya beka means Pishachi. However R K Khadbadi in an article in Sambodhi has contested these views.

Beka-nata

The name Beka-nata and its alleged connection with the term ‘Pishachi’ (literally means, ghost) with ancient Karnataka appears rather mysterious.Note that the word ‘betāl’ (as in Vikram and Betal stories) also means the ghost.

Bekal to Bikaner

When we look for possible word fossils of ancient Bekanata we find many place names with prefix ‘Beka‘  in various parts of southern India.For example, Bekal and Bekur in Kasargod district of Kerala; Baikampadi in Mangalore;Baikandi near Bantval; Bekkur (near Sakaleshpaur), Begur (near Hassan) in Karnataka; Byculla in Mumbai, Maharastra; Bekapalli in Andhra Pradesh; and also Bikaner in Rajastan and so on.Some names obviously have evolved due to local reasons; for example, 'Byculla' appears very much different from Bekala.

In all these place names,’beka’ is the common prefix which has been modified to ‘beg ‘or ‘bik’ or ‘baikam’ in some cases. We find that ‘bai’ were an ancient tribe probably of Austro-Asiatic origin that settled in India during obscure ancient period.Thus the word ‘beka’ is derived from bai+ka, wherein ‘ka’ represents a village or a hamlet in Austro-Asiatic language possibly of ancient Singapur origin. Interestingly, the derived word ‘baikam’ (as in the place name Baikampadi) also as cited in the ancient Kannada text ‘Vaddāradhane’, represented Buddhist or Jain monk as well as beggar, showing the social status of these tribes with evolving times.There are also villages or hamlets known as Bayar, Bayadi, Bayandar etc

Thus the widespread presence of beka place names in southern India, justifies that the region was formerly known as bekanata, where ‘nāta’ (  nādu) means a civilised region.The word ‘nāta’ was equivalent of the word ‘nādu’ in ancient Sangam literature in Tamil. Then regional States were known as Karnata, Punnata etc.

Bai and Pai tribes

There are strong evidences to suggest that ‘Bai’ tribes were also known as ‘Pai’ tribes, because of b: > p:  transition common in Indian languages. Paithan in Maharastra was an ancient capital of ancient Karnataka-Maharastra. Ancient Karnataka, also known as Maharastra (great country) was spread from the River Kaveri to River Godavari as documented in Kavirajamarga.Thus Paithan ( area of Pai tribes) has been documented as ‘Baithan’ (area of Bai tribes)in ancient Greek travel literatures.

Besides ‘Paithan’ town in Maharsstra, there are numerous place names that have immortalized Pai tribes in Karavali/ Tulunadu, such as Paichar (Sullia), Paivalike (Bantval), Pailur, River Payaswani (Sullia) etc.River 'Payaswani' (payas=milk, vani= flow, river) is a subsequently Sanskritized version (name) of a river-name whose original name is untraceable at present: however, it is closer to a place called Paichar.
Similarly, the place name 'Peshavar' (Afghanistan) and the group name 'Pathan' are also possibly connected to the word 'Pai' tribes.

Paisachi language

The Pai tribes had there own language known as ‘Paisachi’. The word Paisachi, Pai+sa+chi , possibly originally meant the language of the Pai tribes. An ancient word of African origin ‘chi’ (also found now in Somali ) means a language. The Paisachi language became extinct probably during the beginning of the Common Era. However, the word Paisachi was made fun of by other later tribes, because of similarity to the word Pishachi which meant ghost!

It is said that modern languge Konkani is derived from the ancient extinct Paisachi language. The ‘Pai’ surname has remained among some of the Konkani people even today,

It is reported in ancient Prakrit and Kannada texts that poet Gunadya (ca 1^st Century CE) wrote in Paisachi language.However, it is said the text of his works have not survived today.

-Ravi and Vishwanath

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 References:

Varadarja R Umarji (1909-1986) Karnataka Prakrita Kavi Charite (reprinted 2008).Kannada

Muliya Thimmappayya .'Nadoja Pampa':(Kannada).

RK Khadbadi . A paper in  Sambodhi Vol 6.

257.Bekal Fort

The coastal town Bekal, well known for a picturesque Fort, is about 15km south of Kasargod, in Kerala. The Fort more or less hexagonal in shape, covering an area of about 40 acres,with 12m high walls, has been built on a granite-laterite promonotary projecting into the coastline of Arabian Sea on three sides of the hexagon. It is well known practice during the past period of kings to build forts on promonotories in the interest of security.

The Fort has been constructed using laterite bricks.The fort area has been developed as a popular spot for tourism. According to historical data compiled by Salattore the fort was built by Shivappa Nayaka of Keladi around 1650 CE, during his occupation of coastal stretch of Tulunadu and Malabar. There is also an opinion that an ancient fort existed in the area originally built by Kolathiri kings of Kerala ca. 12^th Century. The fort might have been renovated by the Portuguese and later rebuilt by Hiriya Venkatappa Nayaka and later completed by his son King Shivappa Nayaka. After Portuguese and Nayaka Kings of Keladi/ Ikkeri, Tippu Sultan ruled over this region in 18^th Century also modified the Fort to carry out gun attacks on the enemies.

Bekal-Dekkal

According to some local legends, the name ‘Bekal’ is derived from the words Benda kalla referring to the burnt bricks used in the ancient fort. The place is also sometin\mes referred to as ‘Dekkal’ (‘Dekallu’) meaning projecting rocks (promonotory) in Tulu language. (Compare the Tulu word ‘Dekallu’ with ‘Dekkuli’, projecting tooth).Alternately, the name Dekall also could have been ‘Dekki kall’ (=washed stones, in Tulu) alluding to the wave washed granite-granulite rock exposures on the beach-line of  the Bekal Fort.

It is said that during the past royal history the place was also known as ‘Baliakulam’. In Kerala history the place was also known for some time as ‘Vekkolath’ (or Bekkolath).

Place-name Bekal

The original meaning of the place name ‘Bekal’ is still obscure.It could not be abbreviation of Benda kal (=burnt stones) as asserted by some, because laterite bricks are not burnt stones. Laterites are simply soft rocks cut into large bricks, using suitably designed flat iron axes, so that the bricks harden after exposure to atmosphere. Besides, the Laterites are commonly known as Murakal (Tulu) or Cherikal (Malayalam) and not Bekal!

The place name Bekal can be analysed as (1) Be+kal (2) Be+kaLa or (3) Bek+al. (Of these suffixes, ‘kal’=rock;  ’kaLa’=plot or yard; and ‘al’ or ‘ala’= a place beside a river or waterbody).

Bekal-Byculla

The place-name ‘Bekal’ appears to be an ancient ethnonym. The tribal group known as ‘Be’ (or ‘Bay’ or ‘Bai’) were an ancient Austo-Asiatic immigrant tribes settled in parts of southern India probably around 2000 BC. We find reference to area ‘Bekanata’ in Rigveda, dated ca. 1700 BC.

There are several places in southern India that share the prefix of ‘Bay’ or ‘Beka’.The place name ‘Bayculla’ in Mumbai, appears a related variant of the ‘Bekal’. The ‘kula’ in Bayculla apparently refers to an lake.

Similarly there are place name ‘Baikampadi’ (in Mangalore), ‘Baikandi ‘, ‘Baindur’ etc the in Karavali region.

Bekal-Bekanata

The place names Bekal and Bekanata share the common prefix ‘Beka’. One possibility is that ‘ka’ in Beka is a preposition (equivalent of English  ‘of’) derived from an ancient languge that was in use during early Vedic period. The Bekanata cited in Rigveda has been discussed by several researchers. We shall look into this place name in another post.

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