270. Amara Mudnur

There is a strange heritage place name that belies mystery because of its similitude with a Sanskrit word, Amara. The word suggests a traditional practice of gift of land by Indian Kings  for perpetually maintaining military units under reliable military officers or the nayaks.
According to "Indian Epigraphical Golossary" (by Dineshchandra Sircar) Amara is a land or revenue granted by a ruler to his retainers for military service. It was the land assigned to Amara Nayaks ( traditonal military officers) who were entitled to collect only certain revenue with the obligation to raise a contingent of army for service.

Amara Mudnur, Amara Padnur

Amara was a large village set in the dense sylvan northern part of Sullia Taluk, Dakshina Kannada district. The’ Amara māgane’ was ruled by Tulu chieftains during the recorded history.The Amara ‘māgane’ (village cluster) was subsequently divided into western ‘Amara Padnur’ and eastern ‘Amara Mudnur’ villages, wherein ‘Padnūr’ (paDna+ūr) means western village and ‘Mūdnūr’ (mūDna+ūr) means eastern village.

The prefix ‘Amara’ in these place names at the first instance appears like a common Sanskrit word that means ‘immortal’. 
Amara Maagane was the traditional term used for the hereditary military grant lands or estates gifted to Amara Nayakas for raising and maintaining a unit of army in the service of the king or the ruler of the land.

ALTERNATE POSSIBILITIES
There are some alternate possibilities on the origin and source of this word .

Amara: An Ethiopian place name

Amara is also an Ethiopian African word used in Ethiopian place names as well.There are many places in Ethiopia that carry the place name prefix of Amara! Since there are several words of Ethiopian Afican origin in Tulu such as Tulu, Bantu, Kenya, Kola, Siri, Meru etc, the Amara could be another word from the same source that appears to have been brought here by the ancient African immigrants to Tulunadu.

Amhara tribes

The ‘Amara’ in the Sullia place name may also be a corruption of the African tribal name ‘Amhara’.

Ethiopia is also home to ancient Amhara nomadic tribes that speak a language known as Amharic. The Ethiopian word Amhara is usually analysed as free people (wherein am=people, hara=free or soldier).

Some suggest that African word Amara represents paradise. The latter meaning appears akin to the Sanskrit word Amara for the immortal.
There are other places along the West Coast that carry the place name Amara. For example, Amara-kantaka is a mountain peak in Vindhya/Satpura Range, giving birth to three rivers, viz. Narmada, Sone and Arvi. They drain into Arabian Sea, Ganga and Mahanadi respectively (Ganga and Mahanadi drain into  Bay of Bengal).  Word 'Amara' here is also noteworthy.

Amara in Sanskrit
Apart from the standard meaning of immortal (in Sanskrit), the term Amara was also a code for the number 33 which was supposed to be the total number of original Gods according to mythology.

Amar in Tulu

Apart from the above cited logical possibility of derivation of place name ‘Amara’ from an African root word, there are several shades of meanings attached to the widely used basic word Amar(u) in Tulu and other related Dravidian languages. Check the following range of meanings attributed to the word amar or amaru.

Amar 1=to shrink. or lag behind or stagger.

Amar 2= to adjust oneself or to arrange.

Amar 3= to settle, compose oneself.

Amar 4= to deposit (like sediment).

Amar 5=to hide or be hidden.

Amar 6= to seize, or hold or embrace.

Amar 7=twin or double

Amar 8= similar, to resemble.

Amar 9= appropriate or suitable.

Amar 10=to initiate or begin

Amar 11= wet soil or hedge of paddy field.

Amar 12= field canal.

 Also a  dividing hump or bund of a paddy field.  Note the related usages:

    (a) Amere kadpuni = Digging a shallow canal for he outflow of water for the paddy field.

    (b) Amare deepini  = Putting a dividing bund in a field or making a canal.

    (c) Amare Todu = A water canal in cultivation field.

Amar(ke) 13= space in between.

Amar 14= intimidate or threaten (Tamil, Malayalam)

Amara 15=immortal, without end or death. (Sanskrit).

-Ravi and Vishwanath.

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217. Kenya

Migrating tribes in the antiquity, who set out on a long trail from Africa to India, obviously with several periodic stops in between, have brought in many antique words along with them. Tulu, Bantu, Siri, Sira, Kola etc are some of the common words deduced in these blog pages to have been brought from Africa to India.
The place name ‘Manki ‘ appears t have been introduce into Karavali in the similar way, either from Papua New Guinea or from the side of Northwestern region of Indian subcontinent as discussed in the previous post.
Kenya-Kinya
One more such place name that is found in Africa as well as in Tulunadu is the word Kenya or Kinya. Kenya is a State in Africa. Kenya means the abode of Gods in African language.
We have similar sounding two places in Tulunadu that bear the name of Kinya and Kenya. In southern part of Mangalore taluk, there is one village called ‘Kinya’. And in northern part of Sullia taluk is another village called ‘Kenya’. Both these place names could be the variants of a single name Kenya. It may be recalled that the region Kenya in Africa is also pronounced as Kinya.
In the Tulu language we can somehow find meanings for both these names, but it would be neither logical nor appropriate. The word ‘Kinya’ means smaller in present Tulu. However, this meaning appears inappropriate and may not be the original meaning of the place name. Similarly, word ‘Kenya’ means ‘listen to me’ in Tulu which again is inappropriate, if not absurd, as a place name. Besides, we have analyzed in previous posts that -ya or –ia are the spatial prefixes/suffixes with (divine connotations) not only in Tulunadu (eg. Aikala, Murulia, Sullia etc) but also in Africa and Asia and Asia Minor (Arabia, Namibia, Kenya, Tunisia, Ethiopia etc).
Therefore since, -ya is a spatial suffix, Kinya and Kenya should be analyzed as
kin +ya and ken +ya.
However, the words kin and ken apparently do not have any logical meanings in present Tulu language. Therefore it is proposed that the mysterious spatial name ‘Kenya’ has been brought to Tulunadu along with immigrants in the historical past.
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