Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Agriculture in South India -notes

Black-eyed pea beans:
Black-eyed pea beans* were introduced into the South India from the Greek city of Alexandria (Egypt).

The Pali name of Alexandria is 'Alasanda'.

The SD languages have a similar word for 'Black-eyed pea beans'. May be it's a borrow from Indic languages or direct adoption since Greeks traded with South Indian ports. I think it's the latter case. Malayalam name alasAnDram sounds very close to Alexandria.

*The nomenclature I follow:
pea - seed
bean - pod

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