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[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 1/22/99 7:40:55 PM Central Standard Time, I wrote:

> In light of the findings of kumArila bhaTTa regarding the Sanskritic
tendency
>  to treat Dravidian words as IA words, one can see how  vEL with an
> enunciative vowel can become vENu in Sanskrit provided we allow for the
> alternation of vEL with vEN in the local area.

Indeed, I have now come across evidence which confirms my hypothesis. Lionel
D. Barnett, in his article, "Two inscriptions from Belgaum, now in the British
Museum", EI, vol. 13, p.18, says,"The places mentioned in this record are not
many...vENugrAma (II. 38, 44, 48, 50), or vENugrAme (II. 41, 42), is BeLgaum
itself; in other inscriptions its name occurs as vELugrAme; and it is known
from other records to have been the chief town of a small district of seventy
villages; it seems to have been a second capital of the rATTa princes." The
inscription belongs to 1204 AD. The language of the inscriptions is Kannada
except for the Sanskrit prelude and two verses. The Kannada name vELugrame
suggests that the original name did have long E and the present short E should
be attibuted to the loss of historical memory regarding the significance of
the term "vEL"

Regards
S. Palaniappan