Beluur and Belgaum

[jayabarathi]

At 04:17 PM 4/30/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Seeking the opinion of Dravidian linguists on Indology
>on two place names of S. India:
>
>Beluur and Belgaum appear to be related to the Tamil
>cognates, vELuur and vELakam.
>
>My question: Are they related?
>
>Regards,
>N. Ganesan
>
>
        Dear Ganesan,

                I am afraid I will be opening a Pandora's box
        by answering that.
                They are related.
                The Hoysalas were collaterals of the vEL clan.
        I was told that bELUr = vEL+Ur, and beLgaum = vEL+grAm.
                The story behind Hoysala (Hoy! SaLA!) is
        similar to the Tamil Sangam name and its meaning,
        Pulikadi mAl.
                Though the Hoysalas make their appearance in history
        later than the vELir, they were always around in the
        Mysore region. And there were also more than one sect
        (kudi) of vELir.
                The Calukyas were also known to be related to the
        vEL clans. In fact, there are instances where they are
        denoted as the "vEL pula vEnthar". vEL pulam is the
        Karnataka, Southern Maharshtra and parts of Telengana.

                Thanks for your patient reading.

        Regards,

        Jayabarathi