Etymology of Skt. rAma (part 1 of 2)

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Periannan Chandrasekaran <perichandra at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>I submit that Skt. rAm is derived from a family of Dravidian or Tamil
>words
>  meaning Ta. irA, Ta. irum all meaning black or dark.

If I remember right, the word rAma or a close cognate occurs in Avestan
also. Surely, etymological exercises tracing Dravidian roots for Skt words
have to account for similar words in other I-Ir and IE family languages.

Note also that Krishna's elder brother, (bala)rAma is not particularly
mentioned as dark-skinned. Nor is the the other rAma with the ax, son of
jamadgani.

Vidyasankar


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