Southern Boy

Bamboo has been a frequently used word for us. Every time I hear it, I recall a ladder made from bamboo in my village. In fact, in my village, I haven’t seen anything else made from bamboo.

There was only one bamboo tree near a brook in my village. We never went near the bamboo tree because it was too thorny.

During my time at Estancia Campus, I had the opportunity to see many bamboos. In particular, we closely examined the auricle part of the bamboo tree.

Just for fun, I once mentioned to Ram that the Tamil word “Paambu (பாம்பு)” sounds similar to “Bamboo”. He responded, saying, “Yeah, it might be.”

This led us into a deeper exploration. In Tamil, “Paambu” means Snake. The bamboo tree does resemble a snake. Speaking of snakes, in Tamil we have the word “Nagam (நாகம்)”, which usually refers to cobras.

I speculate that the word “snake” comes from “Nagam”, and if you remove ‘s’ from “snake”, it is “nake” (but don’t take this too seriously). JFF: A “snake” becomes “nake” if it removes it’s ‘s’ (skin). 🐍

The main point to consider here is that “nake” resembles the Tamil word “Nagam”. “Nagam” is found in other languages in India too, but I strongly believe it originates from the Tamil word “Naa (நா)” (Naakku: நாக்கு: Tongue). A snake resembles a human tongue. The Tamil word “Naai (நாய்)” means dog, which is also derived from “Naa”. This is because a dog is known for always having its tongue out.

The scientific name of the Indian Cobra is Naja Naja. Cobra can be split into Cob+ra. In Tamil, it could be like “KOBRA = KO+ARAVAM”. “Ko (கோ)” means King and “Aravam (அரவம்)” means Snake. It implies that the name cobra means, king of snakes. Maybe, the distinctive hood of cobra gave it the name, cobra.

Now, let’s return to the topic of bamboo. The actual word for bamboo in Tamil is “Moongil (மூங்கில்)”. There are also many other words for bamboo in Tamil. I was searching for some valid sources to find the origin of bamboo and found origins from China, Malay, and Kerala too.

The main discovery here is that I am not very familiar with bamboo, but I am very familiar with “Pirambu (பிரம்பு)”. “Pirambu” is the Tamil word for rattan (calamus pseudotenuis), which is a bamboo-like tree.

In my village, I have used it to make fish-catching baskets (“Koondu”). We use it for making baskets to keep chickens.

I mostly see rattan sticks in the hands of Southern Gods like Sudalai Madan, Palavesakkaran, Pattavarayan, Sastha, Karuppasami, Thalavaai Madan, Vidu Madan, Sangili Boothathar, Amman (such as Muppudaathi, Mari, Pathirakaali, Esakki, Petchi, and most of the southern goddesses). They all hold a rattan.

“Pirambu” sounds similar to bamboo, and both are morphologically similar! Now, the research becomes even more interesting! Let me research more!