Govala/Golla and tamil KOvalar tribes

[N. Ganesan]

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

Though popularly the herdsmen caste name "gvAla" in the
North India is derived from Skt. gopAla (for eg.
R. S. McGregor, Hindi-English dictionary, OUP),
gopAla > gvAla is a long stretch of imagination.
It is far easier and straight-forward to get gvAla from
Dravidian.

Like gvAla, jvAla(A), jvAr millet, dhvani - all will
plausibly have Dravidian roots.

jvAr (=skt. yavanAla) < jOLa, jonnelu, cOLa
and similarly yamuna < tamil to_lunai, pl. see
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0010&L=indology&P=R3311
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0010&L=indology&P=R4481

With kind regards,
N. Ganesan

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