Day is night in Dravidian?

[Venkatraman Iyer]

>B1. On the contrary, naL is not a very frequent item inside the CT
>corpus and it is difficult to be sure of its exact meaning
>(it probable has to do with "middle"; should be connected with naTu
>& naTuvaN)
> + We meet 7 times with the expression naL iruL, like in:
>   kuRun 107-3: naL iruL yAmattu "in the dense dark of midnight"
>   perum 155: naL iruL viTiyal puL ezhap pOki
>   "birds awake from sleep at dawn when darkness flees" (Chelliah
> 1962:115)

    Does the `naL' in naL iruL yAmattu & naL iruL viTiyal mean
a) 'middle' OR b) 'black' ??

> + What about PuRam 246-15: naL irum poykai
>  ("large pond [of lotuses]", Hart 1975:103)

    I am reminded of the discussion on dharmasastras' prohibition
against sea travel (travel across the 'black sea'). There are
sangam poem phrases describing sea as 'black'. In that light,
  naL irum poykai = black, big lake.



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