Eelam

This article is about the Tamil name for Sri Lanka. For the ideological state, seeTamil Eelam.

"Īḻam" redirects here. For other uses, seeIlam (disambiguation).

Location ofEelam,the Tamil name forSri Lanka

Eelam(Tamil:ஈழம்,īḻam,Tamil:[iːɻɐm],also spelledEezham,IlamorIzhamin English) is the nativeTamilname for theSouth Asianisland now known asSri Lanka.Eelam is also the Tamil name for thespurge(a plant),toddy(an intoxicant) andgold.

The exact etymology and the original meaning of the word are not clearly known, and there are number of conflicting theories. TheRetroflex approximantḻinīḻamis a characteristicphonemeforDravidian languages,now only retained in the closely related languagesTamilandMalayalam.Conventionally it has been represented in theLatin scriptwith the digraphzh.

History

The earliest use of the word is found in aTamil-Brahmiinscription as well as in theSangam literature.TheTirupparankunraminscription found nearMaduraiinTamil Naduand dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, refers to a person as a householder from Eelam (Eela-kudumpikan).The inscription reads,

:erukatur eelakutumpikan polalaiyan "Polalaiyan, (resident of) Erukatur, the husbandman (householder) from Eelam."

The Sangam literaturePaṭṭiṉappālai,mentionsEelattu-unavu(food from Eelam). One of the prominent Sangam Tamil poets is known asEelattu Poothanthevanarmeaning Poothan-thevan (proper name) hailing fromEelam.(Akanaṉūṟu:88, 231, 307;Kuṟuntokai:189, 360, 343;Naṟṟiṇai:88, 366).The Tamil inscriptions from thePallavaandCholaperiod dating from 9th century CE link the word with toddy, toddy tapper's quarters (Eelat-cheri), tax on toddy tapping (Eelap-poodchi), a class of toddy tappers (Eelath-chanran).Eelavaris a caste of toddy tappers found in the southern parts ofKerala.Eela-kaasuandEela-karung-kaasuare refers to coinages found in theCholainscriptions ofParantaka I.

Since the 1980s the wordsEelamandEelavarhave been taken up by theTamil separatist movements.Eelavar now refers to the citizens of the proposed Tamil Eelam, which would have taken up the northern and eastern parts ofSri Lanka.

Etymology

Sihala<Eelam

Late-19th-century linguists took the view that the nameEelamwas derived from thePali(AnIndo-Aryan language) formSihalafor Sri Lanka.Robert Caldwell,followingHermann Gundert,cites the word as an example of the omission of initial sibilants in the adoption of Indo-Aryan words into Dravidian languages.Sri Lankan historianKarthigesu Indrapalain his thesis released in 1965 suggested that the people from whose named Eelam is derived wereSinhalese.The earliest occurrence of the name Eelam is in the Brahmi inscriptions of South India in which it occurs as Ila (Eela), thePrakritform of the Eelam.He derived Eelam from Sinhala as follows;

Sinhaḷa>Sîhaḷa (inPali) / Sihiḷa (inPrakrit)>Sîḷa>Iḷa>Iḻam (Eelam).

Eelam>Sihala

Thomas Burrow,in contrast, argued that the word was likely to have been Dravidian in origin, on the basis that Tamil and Malayalam "hardly ever substitute (Retroflex approximant) 'ɻ' peculiarly Dravidian sound, for Sanskrit -'l'-." He suggests that the name "Eelam" came from the Dravidian word "Eelam" (or Cilam) meaning "toddy", referring to the palm trees in Sri Lanka, and later absorbed into Indo-Aryan languages. This, he says, is also likely to have been the source for the Pali ' "Sihala".The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, which was jointly edited by Thomas Burrow andMurray Emeneau,marks the Indo-Aryan etymology with a question mark.

Karthigesu Indrapala updated his theory in 2005 and claims thatEela,the stem ofEelam,is attested in Sri Lanka for centuries before thecommon eraas a name of an ethnic group, and eventually it came to be applied to the island asEelam.He also believes that the name of the island was applied to the popularcoconuttree or vice versa in Tamil. He believes the early native names for the presentSinhaleseethnic group, such asHela,are derivations ofEela,which wasPrakritizedasSihalaand eventuallySanskritizedasSimhalain the 5th century CE.

Iḷa (Eela)>Sihaḷa>Simhaḷa.

Other theories

Peter Schalk,a professor of theology fromUniversity of Uppsala,concludes that it is a proper Dravidian word used exclusively for toddy beginning from thecommon eraup until the medieval period, and states that the derivation of īḻam from sīhaḷa is not plausible.

Another theory based on archeological evidence suggests the word is a Tamil word which originated from South India.Also the Tamil meaning of "Eelam" is postulated to be homeland.

Cognate terms

Ancient ethnic group

EelaandEelavarare etymologically related toEelam.The stemEelais found in Prakrit inscriptions dated to 2nd century BCE in Sri Lanka in terms such asEela-BarataandEela-Naga,proper names. The meaning ofEelain these inscriptions is unknown although one could deduce that they are either fromEela,a geographic location, or were an ethnic group known asEela.

South Indian caste theory

Main article:Ezhava

Eelavar in South Indian medieval inscriptions refer to thecasteor function oftoddy-drawers,drawn from the Dravidian word for palm tree toddy,Eelam.From the 19th century onwards, sources appeared inSouth Indiaregarding a legendary origin for caste of toddy drawers known asEelavarin the state ofKerala.These theories stated thatEelavarwere originally from Eelam. The consciousness of the South Indian Eelavar caste being of Sri Lankan origin is not older than 150–200 years.

Further reading

• Schalk, Peter (2004).Ilam<Sihala?:An Assessment of an Argument.Uppsala:Uppsala University.ISBN978-91-554-5972-7.
• Ubayasiri, Kasun (January 2005). "A virtual Eelam: Democracy, Internet and Sri Lanka's Tamil struggle". In Gann, Steven; Gomez, James; Johannen, Uwe (eds.).Asian Cyberactivism: freedom of expression & media censorship.ISBN0-9749177-5-3.

External links

• Detailed etymology of Eelam