Ancient South Asian word for 'cereal'

[kalyans at ix.netcom.com]

Further elucidations responding to Prof. Stampe's 
observations on ru(ng) kug = rice:

Let me cite from Southworth: 

"For the Munda languages, we are fortunate to have 
two recent articles by Arlene and Norman Zide which 
deal with reconstructions of cultural vocabulary, 
including cereals. They courageously suggest a date 
of 3500 BP as the date for proto-Munda, and claim 
that the vocabulary of the speakers of proto-Munda 
included terms for 'husked (and uncooked) rice'... 
*ru-kug 'uncooked husked rice (cf. Korku rum 'to 
husk')(Zide, 1973:7); *(h)oXy 'setaria italica' (a 
milet) (Zide, 1973: 8-9); Koraput Munda *a-rig 
'panicum miliare (cf. Kherwarian iRi)(Zide 1973:8-9); 
[likely to be a borrowing from dravidian based on DED 
445: irak 'food'] *guXm 'winnow' (up-and-down 
motion)(Zide, ms.: 3)...."  

Zide references cited are: Zide, A. and N. Zide, 1973 
Semantic reconstructions in proto-Munda cultural 
Vocabulary I. Indian Linguisics 34: 1-24; n.d. 
Proto-Munda cultural vocablary: evidence for early 
agriculture, Chicago, Univ. o Chicago, Munda 
Languages Project, Unpublished manuscript [cited on 
p.236 of Southworth's article referred to in my 
earlier note].

I am not able to access many Dravidian forms readily; 
but if my recollection serves me right, konku (Tamil) 
also refers to a 'cereal' [cf. also konku-nATu]. 
Bengali (contiguous to Oriya) prefers the vowel sound 
'o' to replace 'a'. 

kaNku, konku are permissible phonetic variants in 
South asian. 

Is it erroneous to link phonetic forms such as -kug 
and konku within a semantic cluster of contiguous 
linguistic sub-areas?

Kalyanaraman.