Pongal/Sankranti

[Geeta Bharathan]

I changed the subject line in the hope of eliciting more responses. A
query about the social/culinary niche and etymology of "pongal" resulted
in the tracing of the word to "pongu". [see below]

I was hoping for rather more resolution; but perhaps you could take it
further from here--e.g., does the word "pongu" or roots occur in other
southern languages?

In general, is it the sweet, or savoury pongal that is the default form?
When I asked friends from different parts of southern India (Kerala, SW
Karnataka, Andhra), the response was that they don't make it in those
regions. They did not clarify whether they mean the sweet or savoury form.
Perhaps it is called something else in languages other than Tamil. If so,
was the word "pongal" new in Tamil? what is the earliest reference to it
in Tamil?

I came to this group also because some web-surfing revealed that the
Pongal festival (Makara Sankranti in most parts of India) is celebrated in
parts of Orissa, populated by upto 40% tribal people, in ways similar to
Tamil Nadu. Apart from being a time to clean houses and build new (mud)
stoves, they apparently make "makar chaula" made from rice, green gram,
jaggery and all the goodies that go into sweet pongal.

Is this likely to be a remnant of an old (pre-Aryan??) custom or, as the
website suggests, a consequence of the "Hinduisation" of the tribals?

[Apparently Assam celebrates this occasion as "Bhogaali Bihu", a festival
of food/harvest; western states --Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat-- as a
kite festival; the Rajasthan festivity includes making a "khichree]

These are intriguing snippets, and I wonder whether anyone can throw light
on any of this?

--Geeta


On Sat, 9 Jan 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:
>   Pongal comes from the Tamil noun "pongu" (to overflow)
>   This is what we do while cooking Pongal outdoors.

In response to my question
>
> suggested by 'khichri'. I went out on a limb to suggest that pongal, at
> least in the Tamil context, also occupies a different culinary/cultural
> niche related to its association with the harvest festival.
>
> Now I come to this group to ask: is this even remotely true? what do we
> know about the history of the word 'pongal' (in Tamil and in other
> southern languages) and its association with the festival (in Tamil
> nadu, but not in other parts of southern India?)?
>