madhura subhASiNI of mAyUram

[N. Ganesan]

Example of wrong translation:
---------------------------------

MayilADutuRai (Maayuuram/Maayavaram) is a taluk
headquarters in Thanjavur district (Kaveri delta).

Kaa + viri = Garden/forest expanding river is
the meaning of Kaaviri in Tamil/Dravidian.
Sanskritization made it into KaavEri,
with puraaNa legends saying the river KaavEri
is the daughter of kavEra muni.
Even CilappatikAram uses both kAviri and KAvEri.

Tamils pray to the Goddess at MayilaaDutuRai as
"aJcol ammai", the Goddess with sweet speech,
parrot-like speech.

Saint Appar in 7th century AD sings this Goddess
of mayil aaDu tuRai as one with sweet speech.

 veJcin2ak kaTum kAlan2 viraikilAn2;
 aJcu iRappum piRappum aRukkalAm; -
 maJcan2, mA mayilADu tuRaiyuRai
 aJcolAL umai paGkan2 aruLilE!
 ^^^^^^^

AmbAL's (<Ta. ammA) name 'aJcolAL' can be rendered
correctly as 'madhura subhASiNI'.
But it was rendered as "abhayAmbA/ abhayAmbikA".

The error crept in perhaps because:
"aJcolAL" was understood as "aJcalAL",
Hence AbhayAmbA was born. Muthusvamy Dikshitar
has a very nice Abhayamba krithi.

Note that 'aJcol' is subhASA whereas 'aJcal' is abhaya
which is not found in any early text.

Comparing the Tamil originals to Sanskrit renderings
will yield interesting data. Dr. S. Palaniappan's
analysis of 'ghaTikA' for college through linguistic
archaeology is another instance.

Regards
N. Ganesan

PS: E. Said's Orientalism arguments can be repeated in the case of
"Dravidian's position thru' Sanskrit or Sanskritized eyes". Kak and
some others in Indology repeat that Tamil called itself an Aryan
language. Almost like ever expanding fractals in modern math.



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