River Krishna

[Venkatraman Iyer]

>>The name of the River Krishna in AP in old times appears to have
>>been  called something cognate with the Tamil "karum peNNai";
>>'karum' refers to black color and 'peNNai' means palm tree.
>>We have vaTa(north) and ten2(south) peNNai rivers.

Prof. Witzel wrote:
>I wonder whether there is *any* connection with palm trees (why
>would you like to call your river like that?).

 According to B. C. Law, Mountains and Rivers of India,
River Krishna was called kaNhapeNNa in the Buddha Jatakas
and as kaNhapeMNa in the Haathigumpha inscription of Khaaravela.
Later, the purana authors sanskritized as Krishnaveni.

 The Cologne Institute of Indology and Tamil studies Ta. Lexicon (OTL)
gives peNNai - 1. *palmyra - palm*
2. the 17th naksathra 3. water-thorn 4. rivers (north and south
pennar)

There are many instances in Tamil literature where 'peNNai'
is palm tree. Eg., A lover threatening his girl friend that
he will die on a thorny seat on a mock palmyra horse.

May be, the major region watered by the three PeNNaar rivers
were full of palmyra trees in old times. kaNhapeNNa in Nallamalais,
N. PeNNar in Nellore, S. PeNNar in Arcot (TN). In the South
PeNNar (peNNaiyARu) area, there are two old 'Siva temples sung
in Tevaram (7th century). puRavaar pan2aGkATTUr and tiruvOttUr.
pan2aGkaaTu = palm forest; OttUr (Ottu = Veda) has many legends
connected to palmyra trees.

Are the TN rivers taNporunai (sanskritized as tAmraparNI)
and Aan2porunai ( later Amaravati, Amravati) also related to
Nahali 'parayn'??

Kind regards,
V. Iyer

>Comments appreciated
>MW

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