Tamil,Telugu and Sanskrit in Papua New Guinea

The Neuroscience of Dance by Steven Brown and Lawrence M Parsons, appearing in ­Scientific American India, July 2008, made this statement that caught my interest: “Unlike music, though, dance can convey ideas clearly and probably functionally as an early form of language”. Another statement under ‘Human Origins’ in Traces of a Distant Past by Gary Stix states that the genetic record of human history may be bolstered by simply paging through a phone book for certain names, like that of men in northwestern England with surnames that had been used there before 1600, and it would be found that they had high levels of Scandinavian ancestry in their Y chromosomes, a legacy of Viking heritage. It also interests me to see the route maps of the world tracking chromosomes through time.

Of considerable interest to me is the origin of surnames in Papua New Guinea in particular, as I was associated for about seven years with PNG, living there and managing some 600/700 workers.

Several names of rivers, places, mountains and towns have names traceable to Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and other Indian languages. As an example, I have chosen surnames of famous authors from the book Through Melanesian Eyes, compiled by Ganga Powell, an anthology of Papua New Guinea (Macmillan Australia). For example, in the name Francis Nii, Nii means ‘you’ in Tamil. Siuras Kavani has Kavani, close to kavali, meaning ‘want’ in Telugu. Loujaya Kouza has loujaya meaning ‘Bring victory’. The name Nora Vagi Brush has the word vagi, meaning to talk, in Telugu. Similiarly, Joyce Kumbhali is close to Kumbha, as in Kumbhakarna of the epic Ramayana. John Kolia has Kolia or Kalia, the epic snake.

Also consider names like Michael Somare (The first President of PNG), whose name is derived from Soma. Other surnames are Kadiba from kadimbha, Apisai from asai (meaning ‘to like’ in Tamil), Yarupawa from aru, meaning river in Tamil.

Powell writes that Australian Aborigines’ talk to each other sounds like Tamil. I’ve wondered also about the origins of Uluru (Tamil uru means village), kakadu (Tamil kadu meaning forest).

The list is endless. In fact, a study of names of tribes among the Aborigines of Australia shows several Sanskrit and Tamil names.

Some Tamil-speaking people in Australia who have contact with and knowledge of Aborigine languages are making a further study on the subject.

K.V.S. Krishna
2A, Parkland Apartments
Kamalabhai Street,
T.Nagar,
Chennai 600 017

Kayasth & Arcot

The Kayasth community migrated from UP to Hyderabad and then further south to Arcot, Wandiwash and Chennai. They came with the Nawab of Arcot, in whose service many of them were.

On the website of the Nawab of Arcot there are references to Kishen Chand who handled the personal diary of the Nawab in 1795. There is also reference to Makhan Lal Saksena, who did calligraphic work in the Big Mosque in Triplicane when it was built. There are a few streets named after Kayasths in Triplicane, like Eswardas Lala Street, Hanumanth Lala Street and Gajapathy Lala Street.

Can any information be gathered about them? Perhaps, the archives of the Prince of Arcot could be of help.

D.B. Saxena
saxenadb@yahoo.com

Who has erred?

It seems that the Men from Madras Musings have had a binge lately, at one hotel after another. How else am I to explain an article in the issue dated September 1st giving the title of a book released the other day as Historic Residency of Madras? (emphasis mine).

C.G. Rishikesh
A5, ‘Madhurima’,
32, Conran Smith Road
Gopalapuram
Chennai 600 086

Editor’s Note: Yes, the Men from Madras Musings did spend their time at hotels recently, and the printer’s devil who was in charge did slip up and make residences ‘residency’, but he knew enough not to make Chennai ‘Madras’, as stated above.

A better way

Will the Chennai Marathon really benefit the poor and deprived, in a manner commensurate with the hype and publicity given to it?

One aspect about the Marathon was that though it was supposed to help the cause of the downtrodden, it looked like running was part of the entertainment at a festival. There was no mention of the poor or any attempt to sensitise the runners about the distressing conditions in which the poor live.

At best, it can be termed as a get-together of those in the middle and upper income group, for some of whom it would have been an opportunity to burn up some calories.

Cinema actors, politicians and social activists participated and gained publicity.

We need to stop these kinds of shows, if we really want to attack the root cause of the problem and help the have-nots.

It was said that more than 28,000 people were involved in running that Sunday. If everyone of them had taken the ­initiative to dedicate themselves to help towards education of at least two deprived children in their lifetime, it would perhaps have been more beneficial.

N.S. Venkataraman
Trustee
Nandini Voice For The Deprived
M-60/1, 4th Cross Street
Besant Nagar
Chennai 600 090