Film on Holi

[MDSAAA48 at GIASMD01.VSNL.NET.IN]

The discussion thread on Holi is lively, but boisterous, true to the spirit
of the ancient festival. I want to add some socio-linguistic thoughts on the
subject to enliven the discussion further.

The festival is an ancient pan-Indian phenomenon, though, during the
historical periods, it had been localized and practised as a social event in
north India. Dravidian tongues have some words which evoke the significance
of Holi as a spring festival or worship of new sprouts of paddy. kORa koDa =
to sprout (of paddy) in Kui language. In Gondi, kORsAnA, kOrsAnA = to
sprout, grow (of trees, plants); koRta is the month of bhadrA (Aug-Sep) when
new paddy is worshipped. The practice of squirting red is evoked in: OkaLi =
red liquid used at temple festival or marriage (Kannada. Tulu) The cognate
etyma in indo-aryan are: horA = the rising of a zodiac sign (Skt.); spring
festival = horI (Punjabi, Sindhi), hori (Nepali); huLi (Oriya), hoLI
(Gujarati, Marathi). Specifically, in Awadhi, horI connotes the pile of wood
for burning at the spring festival. Burning up the old as a token of renewal
is a phenomenon noticed also in the solsticial festival of bhogi, lori or
sankrAnti. In KoDagu, poli = to increase (crop, cattle) or interest paid in
kind (esp. on paddy); in Tulu, this connotes abundance; in Tamil, to bloom;
pol = to excel (Kannada). 

These etyma are a magnificent testimony to the evolution and elaboration of
semantics (enlarging upon the traces of a root phoneme) blossoming out of
the observed stem sememe: sprouting: pol- hoL.

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman
Indus-Sarasvati Research Centre, Madras, India
mdsaaa48 at giasmd01.VSNL.net.in