Govala/Golla and tamil KOvalar tribes

[N. Ganesan]

Dr. Lakshmi Srinivas wrote:
>kOvalan < gopAla?

The sangam tamil term for herdsmen, kOvalar is not likely shown
to be from Skt. gopAla.

Tamil "kOvalar" means people of the raised country -
mullai and kuRiJci landscapes, and they are not from the 'marutam'
riverine delta lands where farmers belong. Compare the parallels
and synonyms for herdsmen: Tamil kuRumpar (=Ka. kurubaru),
kOn2Ar, etc. have to do with hillocks, raised country, and
kOvalar is related with kOn2Ar, kuRumpar - meaning
hill-folk.

MalaipaTukaTaam tells the kOvalar, kuRavar connection
explicitly: "kOvalar kuRavaroTu oruGku iyaintu Arppa".
VaLLi, Muruhan's love is a kuRatti, the daughter of
the hill country in mythology.
The Kongu country, full of hills and Western ghats,
has a subdivision, kuRumpar country.
"koGkil kuRumpil kurakkut taLiyAy" (Cuntarar Tevaram).

kuRumpar, kuRavar, kOn2Ar, kOvalar: all have semantics
to do with "hills".


>The common Hindi word for cowherd is "gvaala". Would
>it perhaps be less strained to derive it from Skt.
>gopaala?

In Tamil, cOttikam < skt. svastika; tam. cOti < skt. svAti.
Parallel: gvaala <  goala (Risley, 1908) < tam. kOvala,
can we call it a back-formation?

>Another point for your consideration. The ancient
>Tamil name for the town of kOval (tirukkOvalUr) is
>iTaikazi. kOval could actually be a rendering of
>iTaikazi, influenced perhaps by the first part of the
>more obscure iTaikazi.

>(The name iTaikazi for the town seems to have been
>inadequately appreciated :-) and in time seems to have
>been totally superseded by kOval. The word iTaikazi
>itself seems to have reduced in meaning from town to
>temple to a passage in the temple. This progressive
>reduction in meaning is evident as we proceed from
>AzvAr hymns to commentaries on the hymns to
>hagiographies.)

I know "iTaikazi" as a passage in homes, temples and
as well as in Sangam poetry. PaTTin2appAlai:
" kuRu toTai neTu paTikkAl
  koTu tiNNai pal takaippin2
  puzai vAyil pOku iTaikazi
  mazai tOyum uyar mATattu "
Here obviously "iTaikazi" is the passage just as in
our AzvAr legends.

I don't know where iTaikazi is attested as the *earlier*
name of "kOval"/"kOvalUr"?. Do you know any instance?
Definitely it's not in sangam poetry. kOval attestation examples:
a) tuJcA muzavin2 kOval kOmAn2 (akam)
b) muraN miku kOvalUr nURi nin2 (puRam)

This well attested town name kOval from sangam times
cannot be from skt. gopAla for sure.
Compare kOval with other village names:
cikkal, cuziyal, cEynjal, nAval, marukal, mAkaRal, paRiyal, jnAzal, ...

LS wrote once:
>iTaiyar can perhaps be thought of as a hypercorrect
>form of eTaiyar where eTai comes from the word for
>goat (DED 4229 Ta. yATu, Te EDe). Ta. yATu could
>however may underlie Skt. yAdava (Southworth).

Like Tamil iTaiyar, Gollas of the Deccan and further
North are related to Telugu gorre 'sheep' and
tamil koRi, koRRi (sheep, cow).

I believe neither the tamil town name "kOval" nor the herdspeople,
'kOvalar' come from skt. gopAla.

Regards,
N. Ganesan









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