A question on Vedic vANa - 2

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

A chieftain in northern Tamilnadu was called "pANan2" in CT period. But
lOkavibhAga, a Jain Sanskrit work, possibly translated from prakrit into
Sanskrit, says it was copied in zAka 380 (458 AD) by the Jain sarvanandin in
the village named pATalika in the pANA-rASTra. According to Lewis Rice (EI,
no.24, p.334), " pATalika, the village in which sarvanandin made his copy,
may be pATaliputra, in the South Arcot District. The periya-purANam makes it
the seat of a large Jaina monastery. pANArASTra is no doubt the territory of
the bANa kings."  The earliest reference to "bANa" dynasty I have found is in
the Talagunda Sanskrit inscription (belonging roughly to the same period as
the Jain text) which refers to one bRihad-bANa. F. Kielhorn (EI, v. 8, p. 28)
says, "According to Prof. Hultzch (South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. III, p. 89) the
capital of the bANa dynasty appears to have been tiruvallam, 'as one of its
names was vANapuram, and as it belonged to the district of perumbANappADi,'
i.e. the country of the Great bANa. Tiruvallam is only about 40 miles west by
north of Conjeevaram (kAJchIpura). It may be noted that the bRihad-bANa of
our text exactly corresponds to the Tamil perumbANa; bRihat apparently forms
an essential part of the name, and is not a mere epitheton ornans."

The correct transliteration of the Tamil word is "perumpANappATi" which in
actual pronunciation will be "perumbANappADi". This name is found in
inscriptions.  Some scholars have argued that inscriptional reference to
perumpANan2  actually  refers to a type of bard called "perumpANan2". (See M.
Rajamanickam's "pattuppATTu ArAycci", p.614-5) A CT work perumpANARRuppaTai
deals with just such a bard.  We know that in the northern dialect of Tamil
and in Telugu, word-initial p > b in some cases (eg. palli, balli lizard).
Could this be a case where an initial  p-> b-> v-? If so, was the Vedic
situation similar?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Regards
S. Palaniappan