River Krishna

Venkatraman Iyer venkatraman_iyer at HOTMAIL.COM
Sun Mar 21 21:28:29 UTC 1999


<<<
  The name pennai for these 3 rivers may therefore need further
looking into.Perhaps it could have derived from veni(Krishnaveni)
as veni also means river both generic as well as specific.
>>>

  Interestingly, Kamban in his masterpiece (Ramayanam, 9th or 11th c.)
calls a river, :"kariya peNNai" = black peNNA!!!

After hemakUTa, the monkeys are instructed to reach "kariya peNNai"
(black peNNai) river and then on to daNDakAraNya in the Deccan.
This for searching Sita.

noytin2, am malai nIGki, numaroTum
poykaiyin2 karai piRpaTap pOtirAl;
ceyya peNNai, kariya peNNaic cila
vaikal tETi, kaTitu vazikoLvIr. (kiTkintA kANTam, nATaviTTa paTalam)

"After passing narmadha river, search in the hemakUta mountain,
then search for the Laxmi (ceyy peN = ceyyAL) near
the black peNNai for a  few days."

The Kamban Kazakam edition (1984) says "kariya peNNai" (black peNNai)
refers to vEngaGgA river.

Regards,
V. Iyer


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