Rakhigarhi / Cholistan

[Michael Witzel]

At 7:25 +0000 9/21/99, S.Kalyanaraman wrote
Cholistan:

>In Punjabi, choa = water-fall in drops or a stream (as trickling down the side
>of a rock or from a leaking roof), water oozing from an orifice; water
>stratum; choa channan;

Sorry, choa ( = coA )  is from Skt. cyota 'oozing, sprinkling'   (from cyut)
and is not connected with choli  (coli/ colii).
There is no way to explain the -l- that way. (Turner, CDIAL 4947)

At best, you have coli-stAn 'country of bodices' -- which is, of course,
not exactly a likely etymology.  We have to look for another etymon.


>Dravidian cognates: Ta. kul.am = tank, reservoir, lake;
>Ka. kol.a, kol.ahe, kon.a pond; Te. kolanu; kollu = deep pond ....
; Sanskrit: ku_la =>pond, pool.

Skt. kUla Rgveda 8.47.11 ' gradient, river bank',  has no good etymology
(according to Mayrhofer, EWA at least);

However, Skt.  kulyA (kuliya)  RV 3.45.3, 5.83.8 , 10.43.7  'rivulet,
channel'   belongs to a different root (kul :: kUl)  and also has no clear
etymology; some IE cognates have been proposed (in Lithuanian).
Turner CDIAL 3352 has Drav origin.

The Tamil and Rgvedic words look similar enough to suppose early
loans/adaptations. But they do not help at all in the case of Choli-stan.
----

Choli-  has no connection at all with Drav. kuLam etc.  (Burrow-Emeneau
DEDR 1828),
which seems to belong to a root meaning  'water, washing, cool' .
Tamil etc.  k- des not change into c- in Indo-Aryan and certainly NEVER
before -u- ;
(nor the other way round, Vedic c-  to Drav. k-;
the best you get is Proto-Drav. k > c  in Tamil.)

What we badly need is an etymological dictionary  of Panjabi and Sindhi
(NIA people listen up!)  -- NONE is in sight--- which are based on proper
rules of sound changes from Vedic/Old Indo-Aryan through Middle IA to
modern IA  (Panjabi/Sindhi).

-- see EJVS, forthc. this month.



MW.

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Michael Witzel                          Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies
Harvard University                  www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
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