solution to the "kuyava' etymology

[Palaniappa]

For providing valuable information on "kuyava", I thank  Jan Houben, and Arlo
Griffiths and especially  Madhav Deshpande for providing important
clarification in a private communication which is also included in this
posting.

The reason the name "kuyava" was interesting to me was this. In a Classical
Tamil poem, a chieftain named "iruGkOvEL" is praised by one of the most famous
CT poets, kapilar, as belonging to the 49th generation descendant of a king
who was born in the sacrificial pit of a northern muni and who ruled in
tuvarai (dvArakA) with a fort made with copper. Strangely, the name iruGkOvEL
is synonymous with "kuyavan2" both meaning "potter". The Buddhist epic
maNimEkalai uses "iruGkOvEL" in the sense of "potter". That is why I was
wondering if what we have in the personal name "kuyava" of RV is a Dravidian
name for a non-Aryan person. (Even today in Tamilnadu, "vELAr" means potters,
and "vEL" is a honarary title meaning "chief" given to persons of merit. For
instance, an actor was given the title "naTikavEL".)

In his communication to me, Madhav Deshpande said, "Looking at the discussion
so far, I believe the traditional commentators
are merely guessing when it comes to the meaning/etymology of the name
kuyava.  On the other hand, the parallel expressions kUyavas/sUyavas are
clearly derived from ku+yavas and su+yavas, where the etymology seems to
be transparent.  Geldner's suggestion that kuyava in VS (and Rv) perhaps
is to be understood as kUya+vaac would require that there be a separate
item kUya, and kuyava evidently as coming from ku/Uya+va.  However, as far
as know, there is no separate attestation for kuya/kUya.  What is possible
is that kuyava (assuming it came from a non-Sanskrit source, and was
understood as the name of a demon) was subsequently understood as having a
negative prefix ku, and remainder being yava.  This would be somewhat
similar to the original asu+ra (with a positive possessive meaning) being
reinterpreted later as a+sura (with a negative association)."

In light of Deshpande's comments, with some further research, I think I have
found a solution to the "kuyava" etymology.

Classical Tamil provides a striking parallel to the Vedic material. CT has a
homonym "kuyam". It means "community of potters" as well as the
"harvesting/reaping sickle". "kuya" is used as the first member of compounds
as in "kuyakkuTi" meaning "hamlet of potters".

"kuyam" in the sense of potters occurs in puRanAn2URu 348 as given below.

veNNel ariJar taNNumai verIik
kaNmaTal koNTa tIntEn2 iriyak
kaL arikkkuG kuyam...                (puR. 348.1-3)

Translation: "As the bees get scared of the noise of drums by the harvesters
of white paddy, the honey-filtering potters...".

DED 1468 lists "kuyam" in the sense of "potters" along with "kO". "kO" also
means "king" as shown by DED 1810. "kuyam" in the sense of harvesting/reaping
sickle occurs in the following poem.

"kUn2ik kuyattin2 vAynel arintu" (porunarARRuppaTai 242)

Translation: "reaping the paddy with the cutting edge of the curved sickle"

DED 1763 shows that "kuyam" in the sense of "sickle" is derived from the word
"koy" meaning "to pluck (as flowers), cut, reap, shear(as hair), snip off,
choose, select. Cognates  of "koy" in the sense of "reap/harvest" occur in all
the branches of Dravidian. Hence, it must be traced to proto-Dravidian. I
think the VS "kuyava" in the sense of "harvest" must be derived from this. The
alternation of radical "o" and "u" is well-known in Dravidian linguistics. So,
the lost dialect from which this word was borrowed probably had similar
alternation. (If this etymology is accepted, it may shed some light on the
geographic range of "o"/"u" variation in Dravidian also.) This etymology
obviates the need for an artificial insertion of "a" in front of the VS
"kuyava" to arrive at a positive meaning necessitated by the context (as in
the nearby "akSita").

If we have "kuyava" as a borrowed word in VS having a positive meaning, the
interpretation of RV occurrence in (1.103.8 etc.) as meaning "demon causing
bad harvests" becomes unsupportable. Given the Dravidian words for "potter"
also meaning "king" (kO) or "chieftain" (vEL), I think the RV "kuyava", which
occurs in a list of "demons" who in all probability were non-Aryan kings or
chieftains, can be defensibly equated to the Dravidian word for
potter/king/chieftain.

I would appreciate any comments on this proposed etymology.


Regards

S. Palaniappan