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From: "Nagamanickam Ganesan"
To: tamil@...
Cc: agathiyar@egroups.com
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 08:52:18 PDT
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Subject: [agathiyar] Krishna's dance, HallIsaka
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Dear Friends,

Establishing Tamil/Dravidian contribution during the formation
of Indian civilization is not yet firmly established. Even now
Sanskrit Professorships in European universities abound.
My years of working with them convinces me that not many know about
Tamil in the academia involved in the study of Old India.

Comparatively, the ratio of Sanskrit/Indo-Aryan specialists
to Tamil/Dravidian faculty is very low indeed. There are historical
reasons as to why this happened in Europe: Eg., Germanic Nationalism
(the worst outcome was, of course, Hitler), the urge amidst
world-conquering Europeans to come out of Semitic influence in
Religion and Culture etc., pushed the study of Sanskrit to fulfil
that role in Europe. I will not go into too many details of this
aspect for now.

An example of my posting to Indology and a response from
a highly regarded Sanskritist Professor is given below. I am sure
knowledgeable people here in etymology, in tamil and sanskrit
can contribute immensely to the Tamil cause.

I think we have to show atleast 500 words in Sanskrit
to be from Dravidian roots. Then, our case is settled.
Dr. S. Palaniappan has the abilities to do that.
We need more like him, Tamils with a love/feeling for Tamil
and a good grasp of linguistics, tamil, sanskrit.

With kind regards,
N. Ganesan




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Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 13:19:09 PDT
From: "N. Ganesan"
Subject: Re: Krishna's hallIsaka dance
Comments: To: indology@...



Sanskrit hallIza etc. could represent Proto-Dravidian *allica.

hal(l)-("move, shake") is, according to Turner (CDIAL 14001-14018),
a loanword from Dravidian. This hal(l)a- might be derived
from Tamil alaGku/alacu/alai(cu) etc. meaning
'to wave, shake, move, roam, wander' etc.

Compare DEDR entry on Tamil alliyam 'Krishna's dance when he broke
the tusk of the elephant that was set upon him by Kamsa'. This
alliyam dance by Krishna to kill kuvalayapita elephant occurs in
CilappatikAram. Tamil alliyan_ 'stray elephant separated from the
fold' and Malayalam alliyan 'female elephant' (DEDR 258).
These words might also be derived from Tamil alanku/alacu/alai(cu)
etc. meaning 'to wave, shake, move, roam, wander' etc. (DEDR 240)
from which could come both 'stray (= roaming, wandering, vagabond)
elephant' and 'dance (with shaking, moving)'.

The last part of hallIza/hallISa/hallIsa has three different
kinds of sibilants (s,z,S) which certainly suggests a
non-Sanskritic origin. While it is difficult to explain through
Sanskrit etymology this later part, -isa in hallIza(ka),
a Dravidian origin for -iza / -iyam is most likely. It might be
DEDR no. 469 Tamil iyaGku etc. 'movement' (also iyal 'dance'),

>From the citations given in Monier-Williams, it is clear that
-ka- at the end of hallIsaka is the deminutive suffix so frequently
added to Sanskrit nouns at a later stage.

So, PDr. *allica as the source for hallIsaka, may have important
implications for the roots of Indian dance. Similarly, are "ranga"
(dance stage) and tamil 'arangu' (dance stage, small island between
rivers) related?

F.B.J. Kuiper, Varu.na and Viduu.saka,
On the origin of the Sanskrit Drama, Amsterdam, etc. 1979. Cf.,
e.g.:
-- p. 116: "An entirely different thesis has been defended by
Indu Shekar, who argued that the drama was a product of an
non-Aryan culture of India. The present study will show why I
think that the evidence available points to a different conclusion."
-- p. 116, n. 29: "It is true, influence of non-Aryan cultures has
too often been invoked, without the slightest proof , as a _deus
ex machina_ to explain difficult problems. If, however, there are
specific (mostly linguistic) indications pointing to that conclusion,
there is obviously no point in ignoring their existence, our task
then being to try to understand what the role of the influence can
have been in the whole context of Indian culture."

"hallIsa" may well be one such linguistic indication.

Regards,
N. Ganesan

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:09:35 +0200
Reply-To: Indology
Sender: Indology
From: Roland Steiner
Organization: Marburg University, Department of Indology
Subject: Re: Krishna's hallIsaka dance


Dear Mr Ganesan,
As I already wrote to you in an earlier private message, I
consider it possible that Skt. hallii"saka as a technical designation
of an uparuupaka (``secondary play") might finally be of
Dravidian origin. Nevertheless, you have to take notice of the
fact that the term hallii"saka does not occur in the
Naa.tya"saastra but has been merely mentioned only by
Abhinavagupta in his commentary to the Naa.tya"saastra (Vol.
1, 2nd ed. Baroda 1956, p. 181 [1st ed. 1926, p. 183]).
Moreover, the reference to Da.n.dinஒs Kaavyaadar"sa is
somewhat misleading since it is not Da.n.din who uses the term,
but only a modern commentator on his work (Premacandra
Tarkavaagii"sa, 1863 A.D.).
Apart from one or two Hariva.msa passages (only in the
appendix of the critical edition) and ``Bhaasaஒs" Baalacarita
(which I would date not earlier than the 7th century), a relatively
old record of the word halliisaka in Skt. is Kaamasuutra 2.10 (p.
181, 2nd ed. Nir.naya Saagara Press 1900) where it designates
a kind of circular dance, and not an uparuupaka (this is also true
for the Baalacarita).

In short: hallii"sa(ka) or halliisaka has been used by some critics
as a technical designation for a special kind of uparuupaka (with
Abhinavagupta being the earliest and, by the way, NOT by
Dhanika in his commentary to the Da"saruupaka); cf., e.g.,
Vaagbha.taஒs Kaavyaanu"saasana (K. M. 43, p. 18), Bhojaஒs
"S.r"ngaaraprakaa"sa (ch. 11); Vi"svanaathaஒs Saahityadarpa.na
6.307. Saagaranandin (pobably not earlier than the 13th century)
is comparatively exhaustive when he says: A hallii"saka has
``seven, eight or nine female characters. The style is principally
kai"sikii. There is much rhythmical music. It is in one act. One
male character predominates. The language is not elevated. For
example, Keliraivataka" (Naa.takalak.sa.naratnako"sa 3154 ff.).
Thus, the term hallii(")saka neither plays an early nor an
important role within the dramaturgical tradition (As is well
known, the two leading types of a play proper are the naa.taka
and prakara.na). Therefore, to see in hallii(")saka a linguistic
indication pointing to the conclusion that the drama was a
product of a non-Aryan culture of India, is obviously going a bit
too far, I think.

> Similarly, are "ranga" (dance stage) and tamil 'arangu' (dance
>stage, small island between rivers) related?
In my book ``Untersuchungen zu Har.sadevaஒs Naagaananda
und zum indischen Schauspiel" [``Investigations into
Har.sadevaஒs Naagaananda and Indian Drama"] (Swisttal-
Odendorf 1997, p. 114 f.) I have made another proposal,
connecting the word ra"nga with the root ra(~n)j meaning ``to be
delighted". I think, to put it briefly, that ra"nga originally means
``entertainment, delight" and ra"ngapii.tha (attested already in the
Naa.tya"saastra, where it is the technical term for ``stage")
accordingly means a ``platform for an entertaining performance,
stage"; thus puurvara"nga would literally mean:
``PREperformance, PREplay" (and not ``PREstage"). Then, with
time, the word ra"nga as an abbreviation for ra"ngapii.tha came
to mean ``stage".

With regards,
Roland Steiner