Dear Palaniappan,

Thanks for the Tamil Translation.

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 10:34 PM, <palaniappa@aol.com> wrote:

Here is a possible translation of the first Tamil sentence:

(The manuscript which) Cuppaḷam Kesavan wrote and tied/bundled or completed in the year 1039 (of the Kollam era) on the fifth day of the month of Kārttikai.

Is it possible mukiñcatu is really mutiñcatu? It could mean tied/bundled or completed.

Isn't mu-k- 'to end, terminate' [DEDR 4891] is different from muṭi 'tie/bundle' [DEDR 4921] (Also see [DEDR 4922]). May be, they are all related to *mū-y 'to end'. In Telugu, it is not uncommon to find the phrase "mugiñcinadi" in such inscriptions.

The name Cuppaḷam is interesting linguistically. There is a place called Uppaḷam near Colachel in Kanyakumari district. Uppaḷam means salt pan. If the name Cuppaḷam was still prevalent in the 19th century, this might be an instance of an existence of PDr. Cuppu in this compound in Tamil even up to 19th century!

Yes. That would be very interesting. But as Parpola says, could it be simply the case of a Grantha u- mistaken for cu-? In Andhra Pradesh, there are several place names associated with uppV-, such as uppala-pāḍu (20 different locations), uppalūru (Krishna and Cudappah Dist.) uppalam (Srikakulam Dist), pedauppalam (Visakhapatnam Dist) and Uppal (Hyderabad/Rangareddi Dist) but nothing that starts with cupp-/supp-.

Regards,

Suresh.