A. Villarroel's query

[s. kalyanaraman]

Mr. Lance Cousins; the Pali citation is fascinating: mahaamaatikaa connoting a 
great irrigation channel. Concordant phonemes: maTai small sluice of channel or 
stream, hole, shutters of a sluice, channel (Tamil); floodgate (Malayalam); maDa
small opening out of a channel into a field. I don't know how to interpret 
udaka-magga = canal; cf. maDugu pond, basin, pool (Telugu). For references on 
Pkt. khalla, I cited only lexemes; for more, cf. Turner CDIAL 3849. s. 
kalyanaraman.

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: A. Villarroel's query
Author:  indology at liverpool.ac.uk at INTERNET
Date:    14/02/1995 10:23 AM


s._kalyanaraman writes:

>     I read with interest George Cordona's comment re: the earliest
>     Sanskrit term for canal/trench.

There may well have been a number of terms.

In Pali:
At Dhs-a 269 mahaamaatikaa seems to be used (in a simile) to mean a 'great
irrigation channel'.
According to CPD udaka-magga means: 'a canal; the inlet and outlet of a tank'.

> What are the other possible ancient terms for canal/trench?
>     Pkt. khalla, khAla = canal, creek, trench; Skt. khalla id.; kAl, kAlve
>     = water-course, channel, brook (Kannada); kAva = gutter; kAl-vA =
>     river mouth, irrigation channel (MalayALam); kAl, kAl-vAy = irrigation
>     channel (Tamil); kaZHi = ebbing brook (MalayALam), backwater (Tamil);
>     kaRna = canal (KonDa); karna = irrigation channel (Kuwi)

Have you references to confirm khalla in Skt and Pkt ? Or do they only
occur in lexical sources which may derive from the vernacular languages?

Lance Cousins.

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