ivy's names

[S Krishna]

DEar Dr Thillaud,
  I don't think my message would be of much help to you but I would like
to request you for a few clarifications:

1.First of all, are Beas,Behar,Chenab etc languages/  Is it that in
these regions( along the rivers by these names) this( the name given by
you) is what this plant is called? Punjabi and Kashmiri are the
languages that are spoken along these rivers that you mention and I am
very surprised that the languages have so many ways of describing the
ivy i.e. hedera helix.
2. It is interesting that Tamil and Malayalam call it maravalai and
maravalli since Dr Raghuviras English-Hindi dictionary says that it is
called maravalli in Hindi also. These would then( reasonably in my
opinion) point to some Sanskritic origin ( unless the valli has
something to do with the wife of Murugan)
3. You mentioned kanEr as one of the entries...this is a generic term in
the Hindi speaking areas for trees belonging to the family to which
oleander trees belong as far as I know..."oleander" is the
Indian-English term for the yellow variety, think they are used for Siva
worship...the oleander is called pIlA kanEr in Hindi ( pIlA=yellow)

I am looking forward to your clarifications.....

Regards,
Krishna

>Beas: Brumbrumdakari (sic)
>Behar: Lablab
>Chenab: Kurol
>Hazara: Arbambal
>Jaunsar: Mithiari
>Jhelum: Arbambal, Halbambar
>Kashmir: Karmora, Mandia
>Kumaon: Banda
>Malayalam: Maravala
>Nepal: Dudela
>Pashto: Parwata
>Ravi: Karun (or Karur?), Kuri
>Sutlej: Kadloli, Kaneri, Kaniuri, Karbaru
>Tamil: Maravalai










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