FW: Sanskrit and Tamil question

[Loriliai Biernacki]

Can any Tamil scholars or Vedic Sanskritists help with the query I received
below?
Thanks,
Loriliai

-- 
Loriliai Biernacki
Associate Professor
University of Colorado at Boulder
UCB 292
Boulder, CO 80309
303-735-4730
Loriliai.Biernacki at colorado.edu
http://www.colorado.edu/ReligiousStudies/faculty/loriliai.biernacki.html

>  
> If you know someone who knows, could you find out the etymology of the word
> nadi. This word is used for rivers in the early chapters of the word
> Mahavamsa.
>  
> Offhand, the root seems to be nada - or walk denoting motion in Tamil and
> perhaps other Dravidian languages. In Vedic Sanskrit it is used for the now
> lost Saraswati River in the Sind, but is used mostly in connection with the
> nervous system. There is also a possibility of nadi having an Austric origin.
> Ganga for river is very likely of Austric origin.
>  
> I have a strong hunch that the pre-history of Ceylon was dominated by the
> Austrics - people who did practice agriculture and not all hunter-gatherers as
> is now represented. Magama (Hambantota) and the Pura in Anuradhapura are are
> certainly Austric and have a long history before Buddhism. The Archaelological
> Dept. has shown a long reluctance to go beyond the 3rd Century BC.
>  



------ End of Forwarded Message