Word for Heart

[Venkatraman Iyer]

"RM. Krishnan" <poo at GIASMD01.VSNL.NET.IN> wrote:
<<<
there are also many words starting with k and gradually getting softened
over the years and turn into h and eventually lose the initial sound.

One interesting example is as follows:

kuru - red
kuruthi - blood (the red one)
kuruthayam - organ handling blood
kuruthayam> huruthayam. Moving to Sanskrit it becomes hruthayam>hrithayam.
It comes back to Tamil as Iruthayam. It further turns into Ithayam.
Now the original meaning (very scientific too!) of the organ handling blood
is completely lost in the modern context. I have not seen this explanation
anywhere. If there are any, I would like to know.
>>>

I see some problems in linking
tamil "kuruti"(=blood) with sanskrit "hRdaya" (=heart).

a) Are there any examples where the word-initial k-
from Dravidian changes to h- in Sanskrit?

b) The medical discovery that that heart is a pump for
blood circulation is fairly recent and, ancients
naming the heart in any language may not have taken
this factor into consideration.

Regards,
V. Iyer

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