The Sanskrit word meant by Nagaswamy should be (instead of bāṇa- ‘arrow’) vāṇá- ’sound, voice, music’, attested since the Rigveda, but according to Mayrhofer without a good etymology. A look at DEDR 4068 suggests that Tamil pāṇ ’song, melody’ etc have a good Dravidian etymology, which could explain Sanskrit vāṇa.

Best wishes,  Asko Parpola

On 25. Mar 2022, at 17.34, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Indologists,
 
Recently I came across this interview of late Dr. R. Nagaswamy by Prof. Bharat Gupt. At timepoint 10:16, I was surprised to hear Nagaswamy’s understanding of the word for the Tamil bard as ‘bāṇa’ instead of ‘pāṇaṉ’ (DEDR 4068) and his claim of Sanskritic derivation for that word.  
 
 
I would like to know if any other scholar has offered this etymology. 
 
Thank you in advance
 
Regards,
Palaniappan 

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