In Malayalam, Vāvu (വാവ്) is the traditional word associated with the principal lunar days.

Examples include Karutha Vāvu (കറുത്ത വാവ്) for the New Moon, Veḷutha Vāvu (വെളുത്ത വാവ്) for the Full Moon, and Karkkiṭaka Vāvu (കർക്കിടക വാവ്) for the New Moon of the month of Karkkiṭakam, associated with ancestor rites.

The obvious question is: where does the word Vāvu (വാവ്) come from?

The answer is surprisingly old.

The first clue comes from Hermann Gundert's Malayalam-English Lexicon.
Under Vāvu (വാവു), Gundert defines it as "a holiday, change of the moon," and records traditional Malayalam expressions such as Karutha Vāvu (കറുത്തവാവു), Veḷutha Vāvu (വെളുത്തവാവു), Pitṛ Vāvu (പിതൃവാവു), Muḻuttha Uvāvu (മുഴുത്ത ഉവാവു) and Karkkaṭa Māsa Vāvu (കർക്കടമാസം വാവു). Significantly, he also derives Vāvu (വാവു) from Uvāvu (ഉവാവു), pointing to an older form behind the modern Malayalam word.

Gundert's Malayalam-English Lexicon:
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/gundert_query.py?page=938#gsc.tab=0

Following Gundert's lead to Tamil, the Tamil Lexicon records Vāvu (வாவு) as being derived from Uvavu (உவவு). It defines Vāvu (வாவு) as the New Moon day, the Full Moon day, and a holiday, especially on those lunar days. In other words, Vāvu (வாவு) is not treated as the original form but as a later development from Uvavu (உவவு).

Tamil Lexicon – Vāvu (வாவு):
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/tamil-lex_query.py?page=3620#gsc.tab=0

Looking up Uvavu (உவவு) makes the picture even more interesting. The lexicon defines it as "great pleasure, gladness," "full moon and new moon," and "religious austerity." This shows that the lunar meaning already belonged to Uvavu (உவவு) before the later contraction to Vāvu (வாவு).

Tamil Lexicon – Uvavu (உவவு):
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/tamil-lex_query.py?page=464#gsc.tab=0

The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DEDR 558) traces Uvavu (உவவு) to the Proto-Dravidian root *uva- / *uka-, meaning "to rejoice, be glad, be pleased, desire." It groups together Tamil words such as Uva (உவ), Uvappu (உவப்பு), Uvakai (உவகை) and Uvavu (உவவு), along with Malayalam cognates like Uvakkuka (ഉവക്കുക), Uvappu (ഉവപ്പ്) and Uvavi (ഉവവി), as well as related forms in Kannada, Telugu, Kota and other Dravidian languages. Historically, Uvavu (உவவு) therefore belongs to an ancient Dravidian family of words expressing joy, delight and pleasure.

DEDR 558:
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/burrow_query.py?page=55#gsc.tab=0

The lunar meaning is already firmly established in Sangam literature.

In Puranānūru 3, Irumpidarthalaiyār compares the Pandyan king's white umbrella to the full moon using the expression Uvavumati (உவவுமதி) Uruvin (உருவின்) Ōṅkal (ஓங்கல்) Veṇkuṭai (வெண்குடை). The traditional commentary glosses Uvavu (உவவு) simply as Muḻu Nilavu (முழு நிலவு) ("full moon"), showing that this meaning was already understood in the Sangam age.

Tamil text, commentary and English translation:
https://sangamtranslationsbyvaidehi.com/ettuthokai-purananuru-1-200/

An even more revealing example appears in Pattinappālai. While describing the Parathavar fishermen, the poem says:

Pāy (பாய்) Irum (இரும்) Paṇikkaṭal (பனிக்கடல்) Vēṭṭam (வேட்டம்) Cellātu (செல்லாது),
Uvavu (உவவு) Maṭintu (மடிந்து) Uṇṭu (உண்டு) Āṭiyum (ஆடியும்).

The traditional commentary again explains Uvavu (உவவு) as Uvā Nāḷ (உவா நாள்), Muḻu Nilavu Nāḷ (முழு நிலவு நாள்) ("the full-moon day"). The passage describes the fishermen refraining from going out to sea and instead feasting and celebrating. This suggests that Uvavu (உவவு) was not merely another poetic word for the moon, but the name of a recognised lunar observance.

Tamil text, commentary and English translation:
https://sangamtranslationsbyvaidehi.com/pathuppattu-pattinappalai/

Taken together, the evidence is remarkably consistent. Gundert preserves the Malayalam word Vāvu (വാവു) and explicitly derives it from Uvāvu (ഉവാവു). The Tamil Lexicon preserves the meanings "joy," "full moon and new moon," and "religious austerity." Sangam literature shows Uvavu (உவவு) already functioning as the name of an important lunar day, while DEDR connects the word to an ancient Proto-Dravidian root meaning "to rejoice" or "be glad."

The exact semantic development from "joy" to the principal lunar days is not explicitly explained by either the Tamil Lexicon or DEDR, so that part remains an interpretation rather than an established conclusion. What the evidence does show, however, is that the Malayalam word Vāvu (വാവ്) is not an isolated regional term. It continues an ancient Dravidian word that can be traced through Tamil Vāvu (வாவு), back to the older Uvavu (உவவு) attested in Sangam literature, and ultimately to a Proto-Dravidian lexical root.

Every time we say Karutha Vāvu (കറുത്ത വാവ്), Veḷutha Vāvu (വെളുത്ത വാവ്) or Karkkiṭaka Vāvu (കർക്കിടക വാവ്), we're using a word whose history can be followed across more than two millennia of Dravidian linguistic history.

Hello,

Currently all Dravidian communities mostly use a version of the Hindu calendar as their traditional calendar except Brahuis who probably use the Islamic calendar. However Brahuis do have a traditional calendar which has months of 40 days. Interestingly the month names are a bit similar to Hindu calendar months. However was there any ancient seperate Dravidian Calendar? Specifically something related to 40 days months? As 40 days is a significant period in many festivals and events across all Indian communities

I came across research by a scholar who argued that the ancient Tamils were primarily coastal navigators rather than true high-seas sailors. What do you all think?

• Source: On Kings Who Drove Back the Sea: Shipping, Seafaring and Naval Campaigns in the Early Cēra Kingdom, Roland Ferenczi, September 25, 2023

The author (Roland Ferenczi) addresses both points in the paper:

• On Sailing the High Seas: He states that if by "sailing the high seas" we mean sailing their own ships with their own crews across the open waters of the Indian Ocean to South Arabia, Egypt, or Africa, the answer is probably "No".
• On Coastal Trading: He notes that literary and historical evidence suggests ancient Tamil rulers and traders were engaged in coastal shipping.

Overall, he concludes that while Tamil inscriptions appear as far as Egypt and Thailand, their actual involvement in long-distance open-ocean navigation - and even their overall level of coastal shipping - was "moderate and incidental" compared to the foreign trade fleets operating on the Arabian Sea. He also states that the Tamils' maritime knowledge (shipping and shipbuilding) might have been borrowed from the Yavanas!

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Important extracts from his research:

The question arises as to whether ancient Tamils actually sailed the high seas. If we mean that they sailed with their own ships and their own crew in the open waters of the Indian Ocean to South Arabia, Egypt, or Africa, in accordance with the views of Gurukkal (2016: 198–199) and De Romanis (2020: 115), the answer is probably ‘No’. However, we have pieces of evidence in the Tamil sources which might suggest that some of the Tamil rulers were able seafarers. Cōḻaṉ Karikāl Peruvaḷattāṉ (probably around the 2nd c. AD), for example, was ‘the descendent of strong men who ruled [by means of] the action of the wind, after [they] had driven ships of the vast dark ocean’.19 Gurukkal (2016: 86) is right, that this does not necessarily mean knowledge of seasonal winds and of voyaging overseas. However, it might mean that some of the Tamil rulers were engaged in coastal shipping. Gurukkal discusses another passage of the Puṟanāṉūṟu, in which we read the following sentence: ‘… we are similar to [those] other vessels that do not go past that route, where the gold-bringing ships (nāvāy) of the western sea [which belongs to] Vāṉavaṉ with enraged army, were driven.’20

.............................................................

It possibly shows a real or fictitious story of a South Indian man who decides to leave his lover for a shorter or longer period of time for the sake of maritime trade or other business on the other shores of the sea. Of course, a port full of sand can be imagined anywhere on the map, but it is also possible, taking into account the long, day and night travel, that we are dealing with a brief schematic description of South Arabian or Red Sea ports.23 We thus see the maritime trade from a closer perspective: the tiresome travel on the open seas, the Tamils who managed to get on the deck, and the actual lighthouses which suggest a surprisingly modern infrastructure at the early Tamil harbours.

In all these passages we can see maritime activities with their unfortunate mishaps on the South Indian shores, in which Tamils must have been involved (or they organized it themselves). If there had always been foreign merchants in these cases, the poets would probably have emphasized their outsider status as usual. Regarding the question of Tamil shipping, we could mention other passages that refer to strong coracles,29 to the great quantity of goods showering down like the monsoon rain that comes from the sea to the land and then flows from the land to the sea,30 to the elephant-like swinging movement of ships in the harbour,31 etc., but from these texts we are rarely able to reconstruct whether these poets were talking about coastal shipping or sea voyages, Tamil or non-Tamil merchants.

In South India, archaeologists have not yet found much to suggest Tamil shipping, whether by sea or by river. The most important of these findings was the wooden dugout canoe of Paṭṭaṇam with a wharf (Fig. 4), which was excavated in 2007 by the Kerala Council for Historical Research. It was certainly the same type of watercraft as the monoxylus linter of Pliny the Elder, or the tōṇi of the backwaters in the Puṟanāṉūṟu 343: 6.

Read further from page 8 to page 12 in his research paper. Small paragraphs can be read in 2-3 mins.

His final conclusion

................................... Other texts in the Caṅkam literature, which we will discuss in detail in the second part of our study, also mention the Cēra kings who fought on the sea, defeated the kaṭampu tribe on an island, collected tributes beyond the sea, and piled them up in their treasuries. All these texts show that the Cēra kings de facto sailed the seas, but we have only evidence that they did so for military purposes, while their assumed sea-trade activities cannot be substantiated. However, as we have seen before, the Tamils had the knowledge to sail along the coast. I think it is not unfounded to assume that the Cēra kings utilized the yavaṉas’ knowledge in shipping and shipbuilding, and they therefore may have been able to build a powerful fleet to be used in naval battles. However, it is likewise possible that the vessels of the Cēras were used to transport warriors, and only when they landed did the fighting begin. Be that as it may, Mediterranean sailors and warriors appeared on the Malabar Coast, governed by the Cēras, perhaps every year for centuries and have certainly helped them in their maritime activities, although perhaps not for free. We can deduce that the very costly punitive campaign in the northern areas,52 in which neither new territory nor new vassals were acquired, was to stabilize trade relations and Cēra interests on the Malabar Coast.

The speakers of Proto-Dravidian, according to archaeological and linguistic streams of evidence, lived in the Krishna-Godavari valley in present-day north Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. – Anirudh Kanisetti

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan courted controversy by declaring that “Kannada was born out of Tamil.” The question of which Indian language is oldest—and, by extension, most native to the soil—has been a political hot topic since the mid-20th century. Some say Sanskrit, others say Tamil. But beneath the nationalist furore, paleobotanists, historical linguists, and archaeologists have made stunning discoveries about the linguistic heritage of all Indians.

ಅೞ/അഴ (aḻa) = land

ಅವುೞ್/അവുഴ് (avuḻ) = there

ಈರೇೞ್/ഈരേഴ് (īrēḻ) = 14

ಉ್‌ೞೆ/ഉ്ഴെ (ụḻæ) = land

ಏಪೞ್ತಲ/ഏപഴ്തല (ēpaḻtla) = whenever

ಏೞ್ವೆರ್/ഏഴ്വെര് (ēḻver) = 7 people

ಒರ್ೞ್ತೆ/ഒഴ്ൎതെ (oḻrte) = other

ಒೞ್ತ್‌ಳ್ಳ/ഒഴ്ത്ള്ള (oḻtḷḷa) = other

ಒೞ್ತ್‌ಳ್ಳವೆನಿಲ/ഒഴ്ത്ള്ളവെനില (oḻtḷḷavenila) = something else

ಒೞ್ಪ/ഒഴ്പ (oḻpa) = where

ಓೞ್ತ್/ഓഴ്ത് (ōḻt) = from where

ಕೞಿನಾಟ್ಟಕ್/കഴിനാട്ടക് (kaḻināṭṭk) = until subtracted

ಕೞ್ತಲೆ/കഴ്തലെ (kaḻtale) = darkness

ಕೇೞ್/കേഴ് (kēḻ) = ask

ಕೊೞ್/കൊഴ് (koḻ) = give

ಕೊೞಿ/കൊഴി (koḻi) = chicken

ಜಾವೊೞ್ತಿ/ജാവുഴ്തി (jāvuḻti) = who is it

ಜಾವೊರ್ೞ್ತಿ/ജാവുഴ്ൎതി (jāvuḻrti) = who is it

ತಿಗ್‌ೞ್/തിഗ്ഴ് (tigḻ) = cleft

ಪಗೞಿ/പഗഴി (pagaḻi) = arrow

ಪೊೞ್ತ್/പൊഴ്ത് (poḻt) = while

ಬೞ್/ബഴ് (baḻ) = come

ಬೞ್ತೆನ್/ബഴ്തിന് (baḻtin) = arrived

ಬೆೞ್ಪಾಕೂ/ബെഴ്വാകൂ (beḻvāku) = light

ಬೋೞ್ತಿ/ബോഴ്തി (bōḻti) = require/need

ಮಗ್‌ೞಲ/മഗ്ഴല (magḻala) = again

ಮಗ್‌ೞ್ತೊರಿ/മഗ്ഴ്തൊരി (magḻtori) = someone else

ಮೞಿಯಾಲ/മഴിയാല (maḻiyāla) = rain

ವೊೞ್ತ್‌ಳ್ಳ/വൊഴ്ത്ള്ള (voḻtḷḷa) = other

ಶಿಗ್‌ೞ್/ശിഗ്ഴ് ( śigḻ) = cleft

ಶುೞ್ಯಿ/ശുഴ്യി (śuḻyi) = skin

ಷೞ್ಗಿಣೊ/ഷഴ്ഗിണൊ (ṣaḷgiṇo) = 6 skills

ಸ್ದ್‌ತ್ತೞ್ತ್‌ತೆರ್/സ്ദ്ത്തഴ്ത്തെര് (sdttaḻtter) = giver (the one/those who give)

ಸ್ದ್‌ೞಿತರ್ಪಿ/സ്ദ്ഴിതൎപി (sdḻitarpi) = comer (the one/those who come)

I came across the note that there is no word for Hangover in Italian. So I was wondering if there is any in Tamil or any other Dravidian or any other indian languages for that matter?

So i slightly changed the Tamil swadesh list in wiktionary. I removed the word "நாமம்" (nāmam) from 207-name since it contradicts with the core concept of swadesh lists, which are meant to show the basic words in each language that undergo the least change.

Please correct me if i am wrong.

There are 2 important windmill producing hubs in TN.

1 is Aralvaimozhi wind gap (Tirunelveli & Kanyakumari districts)

2 is Palakkad wind gap corridor (Kongu belt).

Kongu belt is wider region. The former is narrow

The culture is closely tied with this geography.

The Tamil proverb "ஆடி பட்டம் தேடி விதை" translates to "Seek the month of Aadi to sow your seeds."

The month of Aadi (mid-July to mid-August) marks the onset of the Southwest monsoon in Tamil Nadu. The gentle breeze, moderate temperature, and optimal rainfall during this season provide the perfect environment for seed germination and high crop yields.

I've discovered this book which has a compilation of tales from Southern India. Could be a curiosity,

Absstract
The main objective is to highlight some of the distinctive features pertaining to agreement
phenomenon and language structure in Kisan. It is a agglutinative language having nominative-
accusative case markings. The characteristics of an agglutinative language has gradually
beenconverged with those of analytic language like Hindi and Odia which are the dominant
languages of the region.

[Found this article on Kisan and thought about posting it here, since literature on Kisan language itself available in English is very sparse]

These two are common ia words for push and occur ubiquitously in almost all major ia languages from Punjab to bengal with slight variation.

For *ṭhel I found a possible connection to this tamil word தள்ளு(Thallu) cognates present mostly in sdr and has the same meaning (push) . Thela is also a word used in IA tongues for cart .

Wiktionary says dhakka is onomatopoeic but could it have Dravidian etymology?

Inspired by [u/Brown-Human](u/Brown-Human) recent post about Umbrella and its Dravidian words, I have been digging into the etymology of “umbrella” across Dravidian and Indo-Aryan. It turns out the same root got borrowed into Indo-Aryan twice, at completely different points in history, and one of those borrowings (Sinhala/Dhivehi) ended up displacing the native IA term entirely on those islands.

The Proto-Dravidian root
DEDR 1663 reconstructs Proto-Dravidian *koṭ-ay “umbrella,” reflected consistently across the family. It Spans both South Dravidian and South-Central Dravidian, so the root predates the major branch splits. The k-ṭ skeleton holds up throughout (with the expected retroflex/flap and stop/fricative shifts per branch, note the Kuwi forms’ g- onset). A few branches (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu) keep “parasol/canopy” as a secondary gloss too, which might point to the original referent being a broader class of shade/rain coverings rather than the folding umbrella specifically. The Kuwi-Bisam and Gadaba-Sunkar forms are secondary borrowings from Telugu, not independent reflexes, so the root kept diffusing laterally within Dravidian even after the initial splits.

Borrowing #1: Old Indo-Aryan utkūṭa
The DEDR entry itself records an OIA reflex, utkūṭa “umbrella, parasol, wasps nest,” cross-referenced to DED(S) 1386. This isn’t some obscure marginal form either, it’s cited by major Sanskrit lexicographers, including Amarasiṃha, Halāyudha, and Hemacandra, so it’s sitting right in the mainstream lexicographic tradition. That puts the loan very early Vedic/classical Sanskrit territory, well before anything resembling Sinhala existed.

What that implies: if Dravidian koṭ-ay was already being borrowed into Indo-Aryan early enough for these lexicographers to record it, that means Dravidian speakers had the umbrella/parasol (and a word for it) at least as far back as when Indo-Aryan speakers were still showing up on the subcontinent as pastoralist newcomers. Doesn’t look like a late technical borrowing, looks more like IA speakers encountered the object already established among Dravidian speakers and just took the local word for it.

Eventually utkūṭa never became the main OIA word for umbrella. It was replaced by chattra (छत्र). We are uncertain about its etymology. Wickionary quoting a few references, speculates that perhaps it is from Proto-Indo-Iranian \šćat*ˢtrás, Proto-Indo-European \sḱed-tró-s*, from \sḱed-*or \sked-* (“to cover”).

Borrowing #2: Sinhala/Dhivehi kuḍa(ya)
Much later unrelated to the utkūṭa borrowing, the same Dravidian root gets borrowed again into Sinhala as kuḍaya, and from Sinhala into Dhivehi as kuḍa (ކުޑަ) or alternatively directly from Tamil. Form points to Tamil kuṭai as the source. The Sinhala -ya suffix shows full nativization. In Sinhala sesath is reserved for religious parasols unlike Tamil and Malayalam.

Summary
The Dravidian root *koṭ-ay “umbrella” (DEDR 1663) is one of the more securely reconstructed items in the Dravidian lexicon, attested with regular sound correspondences across both major branches of the family, and even diffusing laterally within Dravidian through secondary borrowings such as the Kuwi-Bisam and Gadaba-Sunkar forms taken from Telugu. Its history in Indo-Aryan is more complex than a single borrowing event: an early loan surfaces already in Old Indo-Aryan as utkūṭa, existing as an alternative alongside the dominant term of uncertain etymology chattra, while a second, much later and unrelated loan enters Sinhala as kuḍaya and passes into Dhivehi as kuḍa, this time becoming the ordinary, unmarked word for umbrella and displacing chattra descendant words entirely in those two languages.

References
∙ Burrow, T. & Emeneau, M. B. A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (DEDR), entry 1663.
∙ kolichala.com Dravidian etymology database (source for the DEDR 1663 entry, Dravidian reflexes, and the utkūṭa/DED(S) 1386
∙ Monier-Williams, M. (1899). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. S.v. “chattra,” “ātapatra.”
∙ “Ceremonial Parasol.” Imp Art. https://imp-art.org/articles/ceremonial-parasol/.
∙ छत्त्र.” Wiktionary. Accessed [July 19,2026]. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/छत्त्र#Sanskrit.

Recently when I was reading Devi Mahatmæ which is written in Old Tulu

I have noticed that many archaic Tulu words are actually very similar to the Mavilan Tulu words

Like ಎಡ್ಡ/എഡ്ഡ (eḍḍa), ಇಯ್ಯಿ/ഇയ്യി (iyi) etc which is used in both Mavilan Tulu and Old Tulu

And also if we see Mavilan Tulu might lost the sound of ೞ/ഴ (ḻa) which was present in Old Tulu and now replaced it with ಳ/ള (ḷa) and ಯ/യ (ya) but still it managed to preserve the sound of ಱ/റ (ṟa) which are present in words like ಊಱ್/ഊറ് (ūṟ), ಕೂಱ್/കൂറ് (kūṟ), ಏಱ್/ഏറ് (eṟ), ಱಡ್ಡ್/റഡ്ഡ് (ṟaḍḍ) etc

Tbf, its only used for men in Telugu, but I was curious if it or something equivalent is present in the other Dravidian languages.

Edit: Oi is gender neutral - Orey and Osey are the masculine and feminine forms respectively.

Smaller ones used for dogs.

Even today instead of rock it's available in concrete:-

https://barakatgallery.eu/artworks/categories/909/60288-indus-valley-terracotta-figurine-of-a-seated-man-2700-bce/

https://kolichala.com/DEDR/index.php?q=1663&esb=1&tgt=unicode2

I am sharing this Indus Valley terracotta figurine because I found it visually fascinating, although I acknowledge it is likely unrelated to Dravidian linguistics or archaeology. I would be interested to hear if anyone sees any potential cultural or historical connections.

For example, I see a lot of questions in this sub on which group belongs to which identity. People seem to try to apply nationalistic or one part academic definitions on an identity to real world and they find it does not fit neatly. So, I request a person trained to sociology here to cover topics like:

1. How identities are formed
2. How identities are performed
3. How assimilation happens
4. How prestige or status influences insularity of a group or how the group is othered

5 . How identities are layered

We have had FAQ on why there is no oldest language in the sub written by expert. Similarly an expert write up on topic will be helpful

Edit: The one post I was referring was when one OP asked should few of the groups be included as Dravidians and the post was rightly deleted. This is where I felt we need some sociological lens.

From Sindhu we got India, Indus, Hindi and Hindhu, though some of there words have originated from Iranian cognate of Sindhu.

I was searching about this. Sindhu seem to have a clear Proto indo Iranian etomology but lack Proto Indo European origin. Tho some linguistics sometimes trace it to PIE "\*kiesdh". But it Is not well accepted.

Some alternate theories suggests it to be from Burushaski "sinda" which in burushaski is common word used for all rivers, even the PIIranian word also means a large river.

The other other one lean towards it to be from Proto dravidian "\*cintu\*. Which means "date tree" Like that. So not well direct etomology

Some people also speculate say it to be from BMAC substrate.

some say it to be from old indo aryan aka Sanskrit word "syand"-- "to flow" or "sedh" meaning "to hold back"

Thing is the non aryan material culture and ethnonyms/place names surrounding the sakya and ayodhya all seem to be overwhelmingly Dravidian. Also the strongest substrate influence in magadhi awadhi etc is also dravdian.even most non indo aryan names of ancient indo gangetic royalty seem to be dravdian(cellana for eg) and major non ia cities/ regions names are also possibly dravidian(magadha for instance) even many sakyan villages as discussed in buddhist texts are of predominantly dravidian stock . All this made me wonder if ganga and okkaka are also dravidian origin names instead of munda.

The Brahui in Iran are a primarily pastoral community of approximately 24,000 people, residing predominantly in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province. While they are culturally and geographically integrated with the local Baloch, they are notable for speaking Brahui, an isolated northern Dravidian language.

While traditionally a nomadic and pastoral society, the Brahui in Iran have largely transitioned to a settled or semi-nomadic lifestyle over the last 150 years. They often organize themselves into cooperative household groups called khalks to manage sheep herds and farm local crops.

For more information see

https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/print/10959/IR

ABSTRACT This thesis presents an interdisciplinary study of Kandha language and oral literature, focusing on the Kandha communities of Balangir District in western Odisha. Situated within the fields of tribal studies, folklore studies, linguistics, and translation studies, this research examines how oral traditions function as crucial repositories of cultural memory, indigenous knowledge, and social values. Among the Kandhas, language and literature are predominantly transmitted orally through songs, folktales, myths, ritual chants, and proverbs rather than through written texts. These expressive traditions facilitate communication and preserve ecological knowledge, cosmological beliefs, moral norms, and collective identity across generations. This study situates the Kandha language within the broader linguistic and cultural landscape of Indian tribal societies. Kandhan, also known as Kui or Kuvi in different regions, belongs to the Dravidian language family and retains several archaic linguistic features shaped by the ecological and sociocultural environment of the Kandha community. However, increasing exposure to dominant regional languages, particularly Odia, has led to bilingualism and language shift, posing challenges to the vitality and transmission of indigenous speech. Methodologically, this research is based on qualitative ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Balangir district. Data were collected through participant observation, audio recordings, and interactions with narrators and performers recognized within the community as custodians of the oral tradition. Selected folk songs and folktales were transcribed in both Odia and English then translated into English using a culturally sensitive approach. This thesis argues that Kandha oral literature constitutes a sophisticated and dynamic knowledge system that reflects community identity, historical experience, and an ecological worldview, emphasizing the importance of documentation and translation for the preservation of indigenous cultural heritage. Keywords: Kandha Tribe, Oral Tradition, Folksongs and Folktales, Cultural Translation and Transcription, Indigenous Knowledge Systems.