Eelam

Eelam (Tamil :ஈழம், īḻam) also spelled Eezham, Ilam or Izham in English is the native Tamil name for the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Eelam is also a name for the spurge (a plant), toddy (an intoxicant) and gold. The exact etymology and the original meaning of the word are not clearly known, although there are number of conflicting theories. The Retroflex approximant l in Eelam is a unique phoneme for Dravidian languages, retained in closely related Tamil and Malayalam. Conventionally it has been represented in the Roman alphabet using the combination of zh.

History of the term

The earliest use of the word is found in a Tamil Brahmi inscription as well as in the Sangam literature. The Thiruparankundram inscription found near Madurai in Tamil Nadu and 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 literature Pattinappalai, mentions Eelattu-unavu (food from Eelam OR generation OR era). One of the prominent Sangam Tamil poets is known as Eelattu Poothanthevanar meaning Poothan-thevan (proper name) hailing from Eelam. (Akanaanooru: 88, 231, 307; Kurunthokai: 189, 360, 343; Nattinai: 88, 366) The Tamil inscriptions from the Pallava & Chola period dating from 9th century CE link the word with toddy, toddy taper's quarters (Eelat-cheri), tax on toddy tapping (Eelap-poodchi), a class of toddy tapers (Eelath-chanran). Eelavar is a caste of toddy tapers found in the southern parts of Kerala. The Tamil lexicons Thivaakaram, Pingkalam and Choodaamani, dating from c. 8th century CE, equate the word with Singhalam and with gold. Eela-kaasu and Eela-karung-kaasu are refers to coinages found in the medieval inscriptions of Tamil Nadu.

Since the 1980’s the words Eelam and Eelavar have been taken up by the Sri Lankan Tamil resistance movement. In this usage, Eelam refers to Tamil Eelam, an area covering what has been reconstructed by historians as the former Jaffna Kingdom. Eelavar now refers to the future citizens of Tamil Eelam.

Etymology

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) l 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 and Murray Emeneau, marks the Indo-Aryan etymology with a question mark. According to Peter Schalk a professor of theology from University of Uppsala who has done extensive studies on Sri Lankan Tamils and their culture, Caldwell and the Madras Tamil lexicon were wrong in deriving Eelam from Sihala. He concludes that Eelam is attested well before Sihala in India and Sri Lanka, in inscriptions and literature in the 1st century BCE. Where as Sihala is attested for the first time in present day Andhra Pradesh to refer to a Buddhist temple meant for monks from Sri Lanka in the 3rd century CE. He further concludes that it is a word used exclusively for toddy beginning from the common era up until the medieval period.

Sihala>Eelam

Late 19th century linguists took the view that the name Eelam was derived from the Pali (An Indo-Aryan language) form Sihala for Sri Lanka. Robert Caldwell, following Hermann Gundert, cites the word as an example of the omission of initial sibilants in the adoption of Indo-Aryan words into Dravidian languages. The Madras Tamil Lexicon, compiled between 1924 and 1936, follows this view.

Other theories

Sri Lankan historian Kathigesu Indrapala claims that Eela the stem of Eelam is attested in Sri Lanka in centuries before the common era as a name of an ethnic group and eventually it came to be applied to the island as Eelam. He also believes that the name of the island was applied to the popular coconut tree or vice versa in Tamil. He believes the early native names for the present Sinhalese ethnic group such as Hela is a derivation of Eela that it was Prakritized as Sihala and eventually Sanskritized as Simhala in the 5th century CE.

Eela(Ila)>Hela>Sihala>Simhala.

Others claim that the word is a native Tamil word for home.Yet another theory based on archeological evidences suggests the word is a native Tamil word which originated from South India.

Cognate terms

Eela and Eelavar are etymologically related to Eelam. The stem Eela is found in Prakrit inscriptions dated to 2nd century BCE in Sri Lanka in term such as Eela-Barata and Eela-Naga, proper names. The meaning of Eela in these inscriptions is unknown although one could deduce that they are either from Eela a geographic location or were an ethnic group known as Eela. Although the two derivations Eelam and Eelavar are etymologically related, the word Eelavar in South Indian mediaeval inscriptions refer to the caste or function of toddy-drawers. From the 19th century onwards, sources appeared in South India regarding a legendary origin for caste of toddy drawers known as Eelavar in the state of Kerala. These legends stated that Eelavar were originally from Eelam. The consciousness of the South Indian Eelavar caste being of Sri Lankan origin is not older than 150–200 years.Not only the words Eezham, Eelavar, Eela, I'la, E'lu, He'la, Seeha'la, Simha'la and Sinhala but also the Greek Salai and Seiladiba, the Arab Serendib and the colonial Ceylon are cognates.

Translation

The word "Eelam" occurs as such in the following languages: English, French, Hungarian, Swedish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Czech: Ílam, Tamil: ஈழம், Vietnamese: Ílam.