The original Dravidian sound is 'b' and not 'v'

I think sound changes generally follow a fixed pattern as one moves from one geographical location to another. Unless, there is some kind of forced changes thro' literature and cultural influence, sounds are idiosyncratic to that particular region.

The Dravidian urheimat:
At present, Godavari basin is believed to be the place where the proto-Dravidian language speakers had their proto neolithic cultural centre. The present day Dravidian language in that region, Telugu, commonly shows words with 'v'. So, indeed proto-Dravidian sound is 'v'.

However, this region, eventhough became centre of Proto-Dravidian people, is not the place where Proto-Dravidian language was first spoken. That could be mostly in North-West of the subcontinent. That is the movement of Dravidian speakers from West to East. To understand the sound change from West to East we have to observe the population that moved East to West like Kannadigas, Tuluvas and Malayalees*. There you find the words changing to "b". To continue further if you observe West to East (Karnataka to Tamil Nadu) again the sound changes to 'v'.

Now, consider Brahuis who reside in North-West of the sub-continent. And you observe the words again have "b" rather than "v".

eg1. (Courtesy : StarLing database)
Proto-Dravidian : *vā-[r]-
Meaning : to come
Proto-South Dravidian: *vā-[r]-
Proto-Telugu : *rā-
Proto-Kolami-Gadba : *var-/*vā-
Proto-Gondi-Kui : *vā-
Proto-North Dravidian : *bar-
Brahui : ba-nning

eg2:
Proto-Dravidian : *viḍ[i]-
Meaning : to leave
Nostratic etymology:
Proto-South Dravidian: *viḍ-
Proto-Telugu : *viḍ-
Proto-Gondi-Kui : *viṛi-
Proto-North Dravidian : *bic-
Brahui : biṭ-ing

In all probability, the Proto-Dravidian speakers had 'b' sound during their stay in North-West of the subcontinent. And that makes the original sound 'b' and not 'v'.

*It looks like 'v' in Malayalam is a forced change. Culturally isolated Hindu Malayalee communities in Tulu regions and also culturally insulated Malayalee muslims of Malabar had only 'b' sound and not 'v' sound for most of the words. I think this should be the original sound even in Malayala region just like the Western coastal Tulu/Kannada communities. Of course, most of the Malayalees are Proto-Tulu tribes.

However, if Dravidian speakers migrated to North-West of the subcontinent from some other place then I believe there is no way to find the original sound for that letter. But once they set their foot on India it should be 'b'.

---

Genographic project and Y-Haplogroup R2 -update

Spencer Wells has acknowledged that my ancestors didn't migrate Westwards and hunted Neandertals. In fact, they moved south and became one of the earliest inhabitants of South Asia. However, the ancestor group that he mentioned were descendents of Y-Haplogroup R*(M207) and not R2. For Genographic project Haplogroup R2 is still a mysterious lineage as they don't have many samples. Well, data could be found if more Bengalis, Orissans, Telugus, Srilankans and Tulu tribes(coastal Karnataka and North Malabar region of Kerala) are sampled.

According to Dr. Wells, R* might have originated in southern Central Asia(I think that includes Afghanistan) or in northern India. Hmmm... Where is that? Is it subcontinent India or nation-state India? Is it only Burushos or do we have a surprise with Chitpavans?

Buddhism and Jainism in South India - 3

In my previous posts, I have argued that Buddhists were mainly Tantriks in South India who later merged with Brahmins. In this post I try to understand why Buddhism became successful in Sri Lanka but failed in South India.

Buddhism that spread in the societies before they became agrarian(rice farming) lost out but remained strong in the socities that already adopted rice farming.

If you observe South East Asia and Southern China were already agrarian by the time Buddhism spread there and remained main religion until the advent of Islam(a situation similar to North-West of the subcontinent) and Christianity.

In India, the rice farming was first adopted by North-East region. Sinhalese were mostly descendants of the communities from that region. They have very high Haplogroup R2(~35%) and R1a1 (~15%) comparable to non-Brahmin population in that region(Bengal).

Theravada and Mahayana
It increasingly looks obvious that Buddhist monks were there in South India before the arrival Brahmin agriculturists. I think they belonged to both Theravada and Tantrik(Vajrayana) sects. I wonder how Theravada Buddhism might have spread in the population. If the following statement is correct, it would have remained religion of few considering the society was mainly tribal.

"Theravada Buddhism focused primarily on meditation and concentration, the eighth of the Eightfold Noble Path; as a result, it centered on a monastic life a an extreme expenditure of time in meditating. This left little room for the bulk of humanity to join in, so a new schism erupted within the ranks of Buddhism in the first century AD, one that would attempt to reformulate the teachings of Buddha to accommodate a greater number of people. They called their new Buddhism, the "Greater Vehicle" (literally, "The Greater Ox-Cart") or Mahayana, since it could accommodate more people and more believers from all walks of life. They distinguished themselves from mainstream Theravada Buddhism by contemptuously referring to Theravada as Hinayana, or 'The Lesser Vehicle.' "

Lifted from this article.

However, it looks like more people friendly Mahayana was spread mainly in North-East region or East Asia.

Eventhough, it was Theravada Buddhism that went to Sri Lanka, an agrarian civilization was more prepared than the tribal civilization of South India.

South Indian languages and Buddhism
In our primary (first 7 years) and high school(later 3 years) we study words forms under the headings tatsama(Sanskrit form) and tatbhava(equivalent Kannada or any other Dravidian language form). In my opinion all those tatbhava words in Kannada in fact were borrowed from Pali and not derived from Sanskrit. The earliest Indo-Aryan influences were Prakrit languages like Pali and not Sanskrit. The Sanskrit words that became part of the Kannada vocabulary have either retained the original form or are apabhramsha(corrupted form). So asking the pupils to write the tatbhava or tatsama of some words during the language exams does not really make much sense.(See update)

Buddhism and god names of Tulu tribes
Under the influence of Buddhism goddesses got the name Bhagavathi in Kerala temples. As the Buddhists were mainly Tantriks, Kali was Pali-ised with that name since Buddha was known as "Bhagavath".

In Mangalore, there is a temple dedicated to Shiva at Kadri. Here the deity Shiva's name is Manjunatha. Probably, this temple is the living proof of Tantriks becoming part of Vaidiks. The Shaiva Natha Pantha was supposed to be direct offshoot of Vajrayana Buddhism according to Wikipedia article.

The name Manjunatha is itself derived from one of the Bodhisattvas, Manjushri. However, the logic behind the name again shows the origin of Shivaism. Manjunatha means the lord or guardian of ice moutains, as Mount Kailasa was supposed to be the abode of Shiva. A related article here.

Udpate :
1. No idea whether Pali is a Prakrit language or not.
2. No idea if tatbhavas are considered Dravidian form of Sanskrit words or original Prakrit forms in Dravidian languages. It looks like in present day Indo-Aryan languages tatsama means original Sanskrit form and tatbhava means Prakrit form.
3. Absolutely no idea about the relationship between Sanskrit, Prakrits and Pali.

Agriculture in South India-1

The present genetic studies attribute agriculture in South India to Haplogroup J2 and Haplogroup L1 people. I take the definition of agriculture as rice farming with respect to South India. However, many parts of Karnataka and North-West of Andhra Pradesh are not really rice eating regions. But first, let's try to fix J2 and L1 clan members.

After fishermen
I am not really sure about Y-Hg-J2b2 people. Their frequency does not give much clue. I would put them with original South Indian tribal population(that is till we sample fishermen).Before the emergence of agrarian South India, the tribal society saw new members from North-West of India in the form of shepherds and cowherds. Before their entry the original inhabitants of South India were Haplogroup R2, H(not H1) R1a1 and J2b2 clans. These shepherds and cowherds mainly belonged to Y-Hg-L1. Many of these people also diversified into toddy tapping in the later period.

The lactose tolerance reaches only 30% in South India*. So milk made entry relatively recent or milkmen came after tribals and fishermen to this land. However, I have also read that Indians have very high incidence of alcohol intolerance. It looks like binge drinking is not really our mug of alcohol. I believe the research must have been conducted on North Indians. South Indians, I would say, certainly are not that delicate(with Telugus and Malayalees leading the way). Anyway, Soma drinking Indo-Aryan genes must be really a thing of the past. That shows toddy tapping could be one of the oldest professions along with fishing in South India. Most likely, tribal South Indians lived close to water bodies in the regions abundant with Palm trees and ate fish and tapioca and drank Kallu.

After cowherds and shepherds migrated to South India, the eating habits changed(The origin and spread of Indian water Buffalo is not clear; I would speculate they were domesticated for milk and farming in North and North-East India then along with cowherds and farmers these also migrated to South India) .It should be Indo-Aryans(also Vaidiks of old era) who were the beef eaters but with migration of these people beef made its entry into South Indian plate. The present beef eating Malayalees(probably, the only Hindu community at present to keep eating beef) were in fact the last ones to eat beef. Hence, along with fish, tapioca(cassava root) and kallu, Malayalees ate beef (and are still nostalgic about it. Sometimes, they take it as staple diet instead of rice centred food).

And Parashurama gave the land to Brahmins
I discount J2 and L1 as mainly responsible for agriculture in South India because rice farming obviously look like being spread from North-East of India and L1 absolutely do not have any presence in North-East of South India too.

Interestingly, English word "rice" is supposed to have Indo-Iranian origin. The root is represented in South Dravidian-1(*ari) and South Dravidian-II(ari-se in Telugu)(Find the reference at Starling database). So it looks like the word is a borrow from Indo-Aryan. However, none of the Indo-Aryan languages show the derivative of that word for rice. A strange situation. Probably, something to do with the late adoptation of rice farming in North-West of India. However, if rice farming was not part of Indo-Aryan speaking population in those parts then how come the word for rice is part of North-East Indo-Aryan speakers who moved South India and also Europeans. I do not know. I think to escape from incoherency people just don't connect many things together. Anyway, our population Geneticists lead the way.

As I said before, rice farming started in North East India and moved to Gangetic planes. The Brahmins who migrated to South India from those areas also brought the knowledge of farming with them. In fact, in South India only Brahmins, except for coastal Andhra (as the region is close to North East of India hence tribals could have diversified into farming on their own) most of the other parts of South India had only Brahmin land lords. In small regions like coastal Karnataka(Tulu Nadu) and Kerala almost all the agriculture lands were once belonged to Brahmins. Many tribals started working in these lands as supervisors or as labourers. Many supervisors then independently became landlords or acquired the land from Brahmins in regions like Kerala. The emergence of tribal farmers also paved the way for rapid expansion of Haplogroup H1 in South and Central India. Most likely Haplogroup H1 is originated in North-East of India(Bengal, Orissa areas).

The Tulu tribes

Tulu is a Dravidian language which became an independent language from Proto South-Dravidian-I before any other languages belonging to that tree(Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil etc.). In one of my previous posts I have argued that many ancestors of present day Malayalees were basically Tulu tribals who lost their language because of Tamil imperialism.

Cultural similarities between Tuluva(s) and Malayalee(s)
Couple of cultural similarities that I discussed previously were;
1. Matrilineal or matrifocal system
2. Spirit worship

My grandmother once told me that our lineage system is the same as that of Tuluva(s). The lineage system is very common to South Asian and Central Asian tribes. Hindus call this lineage system "Gotra". However, there are many variations in this Gotra system. The Vaidik gotra system is different from caste specific Gotra systems. Some authors call the lineage system observed in Tulu and North Malabar regions as "Dravidian Gotra or lineage system"[2]. Well, the term Dravidian could be used only in linguistic sense, the cultural usage of this term is increasingly becoming meaningless as we understand more about Indian male and female lineages thro' genetics. So I would refrain from giving it Dravidian identity but I would just call it lineage system of Tulu tribes. This is known as 'bari' in Malayalam and 'bali' in Tulu. Another Malayalam word 'illam' is the term used by Malayalee Brahmins for their lineages instead of 'Gotra'. So I will drop that word. Probably, in literary Malayalam the term should be 'Vazhi(as in Tavazhi -> tAy + vazhi = matrilineal line)' but of course the original form the word could be found in my Malayalam which is 'Bari'(b->v change ; according to me 'b' is the original Dravidian sound and not 'v' but nobody agrees with me).

baLi system
All the baLis are common across the non-Brahmin communities in this region[4]. Eventhough, Malayalee bari names differ from that of Tulu(sometimes Kannada, as you can find both Tulu and Kannada speakers belonging to a single caste in geographically adjacent areas) names, people identify the corrsponding lineages between these two linguistic groups[1].

The rulers of Tulu regions established 14 Kattu(system)s and 16 Kattale(commandment)s. Curiously, all these rules which included caste rules lacked Brahmin touch as it was said to be imposed by a ruler called Bhutala Pandya under the instructions of a spirit called 'Kundodara'.

Spirit worship:
In my previous posts I maintained that Korati was the original spirit goddess because she was worshipped in Tharavadu(joint family house)s. I am not very sure now. It looks like Korati is the main spirit of a tribe called 'Koraga' along with her male counterpart which is called Koraga[3]. But this spirit is worshipped as a protector of domestic and crops by other communities too.

Also, previously I mentioned that we don't find any IVC worship traces in South India because all the spirits were worshipped in symbol format. However, it looks like couple spirits, Jumaadi and Maari(the so called mother goddess) were worshipped in idol format (mostly crude wooden figurines)[3]. I wonder if the IVC goddess figurines were also crude.

Interestingly, many female spirits have male counterparts. eg.
Korati -> Koraga
Ullalti -> Ullaya
Kallurti -> Kalkunda
and they are generally brother and sisters.

Another important spirit Jumaadi is in fact half male and half female[3]. So this must be the origin of the later Ardhanarishwara.

I wonder what happened to male consort of our Mari. I did not find Maju.

The later Vaidikization saw all these spirits being part of Shaiva legends. However, later Vaishnava movement saw couple of spirits with Vishnu's touch. eg. Bermeru and Panjurli. Among these Bermeru is a very interesting spirit. He is not supposed to be identified with Vaidik Brahma but has the Sanskritized name Brahma. Also, Vishnu himself has taken spirit form in 'Vishnumurthy'.

The story of Vishnumurthy spirit is rather complicated. Malayalees believe this spirit was created in memory of a Hoysala king Bittideva who converted to Vaishnavism and became Vishuvardhana(He was originally a Jain). So basically, this is an import to Malayala region from Tulu region.

But according to Tuluvas, this is in fact a very popular spirit of Malayalees which gradually made its appearance in Tulu regions. I read this account first and it sounded reasonable to me as Vishnumurthy is the Kula daiva(family, lineage spirit) of my 'bari'. I mean an import from Tulu region can't be a main spirit of a Malayalee community. But when I read the Malayalee version that sounded more logical so I am confused.

References:
1. My grandmother
2. The Bunts of Tulunadu, an article by Dr. Neria Harish Hebbar
3. Spirits, an article at Bunts' community page
4. Bunts' history, an article by Aerya Lakshminarayana Alva

Rise of patriarchal society -iii

The formation of family and community in the development human civilization is really confusing for me. I think communities were formed before families. I think the variables in a family are more complex than in a community in the initial stages of civilization. Therefore, simple community structure might have formed before family structure.

Men-> community; woman -> family
Well, that's what I think. The men formed community and a woman formed a family. During our hunter-gatherer past men bonded but women missed(Are all women individualistic?). However, the families grew with women at the helm as one night stands might have been vogue in those days.

The religion export
I wonder if it were a community or a family to start mass worship. Probably, both in their own way. With mostly men officiating(could be women too if the hunters included them) the community and women the family worships. However, as families expand and become mini communities of their own the connecting bonding is always male.

Otherday, my grandmother commented that the women have been relegated to become mere cooks in the resurrected Tharavadu temples of my community. In the old days, the female head of the family had the exclusive rights to offer prayers. However, the present Tharavadu temple structure might have escaped from her notice.

The Tharavadu(s) were the joint family houses. Each Tharavadu was identified with the lineages known as illam in Malayalam or bali in Tulu. Nowadays, the joint family system is dead and there are no Tharavadu(s). However, there is an attempt to resurrect these Tharavadu temples. There are many families belonging to single illam, however, instead of each family having a particular Tharavadu temple all these families are identifying a place as the origin of their 'illam' and establishing temple for the family goddess, spirits. And all the people forefront in this endeavour are invariably men. In fact, there are community temples(for castes in general) with primarily goddesses but all the priests and oracles are males. And this was the case when females had the exclusive rights in their Tharavadu(s). So any connection between goddess, matriliny and patriarchy is just random events of community and family. At least, religion has nothing to do in the development of patriarchy though it might have supported male supremacy in the later period.

The original father of Dravidian speakers-II

Though I have speculated that aya(looks like most of these words had unstressed original forms) could be the original father, it is difficult to overlook apa. Unfortunately apa is the universal father
accroding to this database.

Borean (approx.) : HVPV
Meaning : father
Eurasiatic : *aṗV
Afroasiatic : *ʔab-
Sino-Caucasian : *ʔŭṗV́
Austric : PAA *bʔa / *ba, Tai *bo, PAN *aba 'father'
Amerind (misc.) : *ipa 'man' (R 456)
African (misc.) : Bantu *-bààbá 'father'.
Reference : ND 5; GE 28 *papa (+ NS).

Now let us consider 'aya'
Proto-Dravidian : *ája-
Meaning : an elder relative (father's brother; grandfather; father)
Proto-South Dravidian: *ajja-
Proto-Telugu : *ajja
Proto-Kolami-Gadba : *aja-
Proto-Gondi-Kui : *V̄j-

"aya" could be observed in only Dravidian languages.

Let us consider 'ata'
Borean (approx.) : HVTV
Meaning : elder male relative, father
Eurasiatic : *ʔVṭV (cf. also *tajV)
Afroasiatic : *tVy- (?) (cf. also *ʔad- ˜ *daʔ- )
Sino-Caucasian : NC *dājV
Austric : *tá
Amerind (misc.) : ? *taq 'maternal uncle' (R 804) [+ A]
African (misc.) : Bantu *-tààtá 'father'.

Just like apa, ata is also universal father.

Let us consider 'aja' or 'aca' or 'azz'
Eurasiatic: *ʔacwV
Meaning: father, ancestor
Altaic: *ăčV
Uralic: *äćä (cf. also *ićä; *iśV)
Dravidian: *áǯǯ-
Eskimo-Aleut: *acaɣ
References: ND 797 *Hać̣/c̣^[i] 'father, ancestor'. Cf. also Ur. *ćečä 'uncle' - probably just reduplicated, but Dolg. ND 2145 *seǯA compares it with Kartv. *śiʒ́e- 'son-in-law' (+ some ECush.).

More Eastern but conspicuously absent from Indo-European. However, the linguists there believe this could not possibly be an equivalent of 'arya'.
Courtesy : Starling database.

It should be noted here that only Hindu malayalees use(South of Kasaragod) 'aca' for father at present. In Karnataka, aja is grandfather. As I have mentioned previously both apa and tand (formal word for father) have become derogatory in Kerala. Curiously, grandfather in Malayalam is appoppa( apa's apa) and father's sister is appacci(apa's woman) though common sense tells us that those should be accocca or acchacci. Probably, this tells us the vulgarization of apa that part of Hindu society could be quite new and this could be further seen in the fact that Christians and Malayalee Hindus in North(mostly living amongs Tulu/Kannada speakers) still call their fathers apa.

Again, I speculated that many of the relationship terms show incestuous past. But this does not look like the case. In my opinion, ammavan (amma + avan) in Malayalam is amma's man probably indicating the old brother-sister marital relationships. But more rational explanation could be that masculine and feminine gender "in relative of" relationships represent blood relationships and not marital relationships.
eg.
amma -> ammavan (amma's brother avan -> he -> man)
apa -> appacci ( appa's sister acci -> woman, previously honorific "lady" also, similar is the case with anna and anni where 'anni' was lady, a honorific)
ata -> atte ( ata -> father ; atte -> father's sister)
Of course, there are too many exceptions to make this a rule.

We can make two interesting observations in the above cases;
1. grandfather in Malayalam is appoppa (apa's apa)
2. amma's brother in Malayalam is ammavan but in Kannada maava; the initial 'a' is lost.

Based on these we can construct another lost father in non-Tamil, Malayalam Dravidian languages and that is 'ata'.

Starling database considers 'tata' is an independet word for grandfather or father. I consider grandfather is primary and father is secondary here.

If the present day Malayalam appoppa show the oldest way of calling ones grandfather; then we can be sure that;
ata father gave rise to atata which became tata( ammavan -> maava) and this could be found among most of the other Dravidian languages too.

So we have a universal father apa -> widely used.
Another universal father ata -> almost extinct(except for Tamil muslim communities, as a reader commented)
Eastern father aca -> Only Malayalees
Exclusive Dravidian father aya -> almost extinct (except for few rural communities in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu).

I will stop it here since I have confused myself enough.

Bhagavathi

Bhagavathi is the main goddess in Kerala temples. Here I am trying to explain her entry into spirit worshipping Malayalee society and her higher position over the spirits in the temple.

Kali and Haplogroup R2 people:
Along with rice farming, Y-Haplogroup R2 people brought Kali, an idol goddess, to Malabar(Kerala and Tulu Nadu) regions from Eastern part of India. This Kali was the main goddess of Tantriks(before they became part of either Buddhists or Vaidiks).

Tara and Bhagavathi:
As I have mentioned earlier, just as Tibetan Shamans became part of Buddhism, these Tantriks also became part of Buddhism taking their goddess into Buddhism. The Kali by this time came to be known as Tara in Eastern regions both in Vaidikism and Buddhism(however, the name Kali still used in Vaidikism). I am not sure if Tara in Vaidikism is because Buddhist Tantriks joining Vaidikism or Tantriks -> Vaidik Tantriks -> Buddhist Tantriks (Vajrayana) sequence or
Tantriks(Kali to Tara conversion) -> Vaidik Tantriks and Buddhist Tantriks(simultaneous). But I am inclined to think it should be Buddhist Tantriks joining Vaidiks(most probably Saivites), a pattern that was repeated in Malabar region too.

In the region of Malabar, as Tantriks became part of Buddhism Kali became Bhagavathi. When these Tantriks embraced Vaidikism, Bhagavathi also became "pure and higher". This could be seen in the community temples of Kerala where spirits along with Serpent(which is again a spirit) have shrines outside the Bhagavathi shrine and are mere protectors and equated with Shiva's Ganas. However, in their tribal past Malayalees worshipped spirits(never in idol format) as supreme divine beings. This tradition continued in their Tharavadus, joint family houses, where Korati, a spirit goddess was worshipped.

Buddhism and Jainism in South India - 2

In my opinion, the historians who work on Buddhism and Jainism in South Indian society should take the following considerations.

1. Non-overlapping of the events
-> Chronological order of the events. I believe the initial evidences could be found around 2nd century BCE and final around 12-13th century CE. While making qualitative interpreatations one should be careful not to overlap the centuries.
-> Settlement remains. One can find evidences of settlement all parts of the region. But one has to be sure whether all those settlements point towards the same period. I mean people move and start a new settlement. A settlement in North during first century CE, Central third century CE, East 5th century CE , South 8th century CE in a region, does not give any clues in 21st century.

2. Implementation of caste system.
-> If you read assertions like Jains or Buddhists imparted the education regardless of the caste one wonders if the society had already been divided along the caste lines since the beginning of the civilization in South India. In my opinion, implemenation of caste system in South Indian society is not uniform and very complicated. Probably, Tamil Nadu might have had caste system around 3-4th century CE (during reign of Pallavas) but it could be as late as 13-14th century in Kerala. Identification of people with various Varnas does not mean implementation of caste system but can only be ascertained by the evidences of rules and regulations they had to follow which had been enforced with the help of rulers.

Anyway, in my previous entry, I mentioned that somehow Tantriks joined Vaidiks. However, it seems in South Indian society Buddhists, Jains, Tantriks, Shaivas and Vaishnavas used to study Vedas, Vedantas along with other religous texts. Probably, this gives clues for how caste consciousness might have creeped into Buddhists, Jains and Tantriks. Now I believe the holocaust of Buddhists and Jains in South India is not a physical process but an intellectual corruption brought about by their access to Vaidik literature. Probably, this would also explain the ease with which Jains of Karnataka embraced Vaishnavism. Vaishnavas of Ramanuja were strong proponents of Vedas and did not accept Shaivas as part of the Vaidik religion. By this time, the strongest opponents of Jains were Shaivas and not Vaidiks(Unlike Tamil Nadu Shaivas of Karnataka rejected Vedas, initially). Anyway, initial non-casteist form of Vaishnavism lost over time and endogamous nature appeared as dictated by Vaidik literature.

Note: In one of the studies(Sahoo et al. 2006), Y-Haplogroup H formed around 45% of Vaishnavas of Karnataka(Tamil speaking Iyengars), unlike Vaishnavas of Tamil Nadu whose Haplogroup frequency matched with other Brahmin caste, Iyers(in another study, Sengupta et al. 2006). Though it might probably support the assumption that native Jains merged their identities with Tamil Vaishnavas, we have to be careful considering the small size of the sample(17).

The original father of Dravidian speakers

Who is he? Is it Na(ya)na as the Telugus call their father? Or is it Ayya? Is it Appa? Is it Amme? Is it Acca?

Looks like the oldest form is Ayya. Telugu nana is bit surprising. And why majority Malayalee Hindus consider appa as derogatory? In fact, the Malayalee Hindus of Kasaragod always called their fathers appa (they were surrounded by Tuluvas who called their father amme) and for Kasaragod Malayalees acca was uncle! But Malayalee Christians use both appa and acca(ya). Many Malayalee muslims use abba, which definetely points towards Arabic influence.

I wonder if all of them are cognates. Is there some kind of metathesis on work in addressing terms of ones relatives?

eg. amma - mama
anna - nana (I thought this is in fact real Telugu father but another blogger thinks it should be nayana)
annayya - nayana (this is bit complicated, I just wanted to fit the curve)
atta - tata - dada
akka - kaka
acca - caca
appa - papa
abba - baba