Kadamba

[George Hart]

Take a look at this:

http://images.google.com/images?q='Anthocephalus%20cadamba'

According to the DED, Skt. kadamba is (not surprisingly) Dravidian --  
Tamil kaTampu, kaTampam, Telugu kaDambamu, etc.  It was worn by the  
veelan, a low-caste priest of Murugan, when he became possessed.  One  
wonders why the retroflex disappeared in Sanskrit -- perhaps the  
voicing of the -T- (stops are voiced in Tamil/Malayalam when they  
appear intervocalically) was heard more prominently than the  
retroflex.  The -T- retroflexed in all the Dravidian languages cited  
by DED.  It also gives a variant Sanskrit form, kalamba.

George Hart

On Aug 19, 2008, at 9:57 AM, mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU wrote:

> Thanks to all who answered my query.
> There seem to be several Latin designations
> for the same plant in this case.
>
> The very useful Pandanus database
> suggests "wild cinchona" as the English name,
> but I am puzzled by this: "cinchona" generally
> names several quinine-yielding species in
> South America. Is it possible that, after
> the invention of the gin and tonic, drunken
> malaria victims began to see quinine bushes
> everywhere?
>
> Matthew
>
> Matthew T. Kapstein
> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
> The University of Chicago Divinity School
>
> Directeur d'études
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris