Kolami
names 43objects 25ISO 639-3 kfb
Spoken in Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana.
tribal 43
See the Kolami sky on the chart →
The sky in Kolami
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bhori | Aldebaran | 'a bird' Seen with two eggs beside it. Five of ten villages. | tribal |
| Gurram / Guram | Aquila | 'a horse' Average rain at Landgi Pod, less rain at Kakban. | tribal |
| Tiva Pate | Canis Major | 'the three-legged stool' The stool a thresher stands on to drop the harvest into the wind, so that the husk blows away. Given at Dubaguda and Jamini with the star named. | tribal |
| Tiva; Miti; Kovela; Konda | Canis Major | farming tools At Raipur four names are given for the region without individual identifications, and the recorders note that the Gonds describe the same tools in detail. | tribal |
| Namli / Namali | Cassiopeia | 'a peacock' One of the five or six animals that stand around Samdur and forecast the monsoon by their brightness. Landgi Pod reads the peacock as a bad sign, Chinchpod as less rain, Kakban as less rain. Six of the ten villages knew the animals. | tribal |
| Kadma | Centaurus | 'a young lady' The second flower-gatherer under the Mahua tree. | tribal |
| Murta | Centaurus | 'an old lady' Standing under the Mahua tree of Crux to collect its fallen flowers. | tribal |
| Oedda | Centaurus | 'a man' At Landgi Pod the two bright stars beside the Mahua tree are a man and a woman rather than the old lady and the young lady given elsewhere. | tribal |
| Pilla | Centaurus | 'a woman' The companion of Oedda at Landgi Pod, in place of Kadma the young lady. | tribal |
| Sipur suka | Comets | 'a star with a tail' A bad omen. Six of ten villages. | tribal |
| Irukmara / Ipamaka | Crux (the Southern Cross) | a Mahua tree (Madhuca longifolia), whose flowers are fermented to make liquor Eight of ten villages. Two named stars stand under the tree to gather its flowers — see Murta and Kadma below. | tribal |
| Irup pokke | Crux (the Southern Cross) | 'the flowers of the Mahua' The small stars around the Mahua tree Irukmara, gathered by the old lady and the young one who stand beside it as α and β Centauri. | tribal |
| Barre; Sir; mais | Cygnus | 'a buffalo' The best sign of the set: Landgi Pod calls the buffalo excellent, Raipur says lots of rain. | tribal |
| Kavadi Kunde / Kavedi Koda | Cygnus | 'a tower of three pots' Seven of ten villages. | tribal |
| Kaland (Kakban); Telganam (Dubaguda) | Directions taken from the sky | The two villages give opposite answers, and both are recorded here. | tribal |
| Potkurina / Potkuranai; Suryatu | Directions taken from the sky | Suryatu 'the sunrise direction' The two villages that gave the quarters, Dubaguda and Kakban, agree on east and west and contradict each other on north and south. | tribal |
| Potpadna / Potpodnavai | Directions taken from the sky | Agreed between the two villages that gave the quarters. | tribal |
| Telagnaam (Kakban); Kalam (Dubaguda) | Directions taken from the sky | See the northern quarter: the two villages give opposite answers. | tribal |
| Gongpatad; Beduk | Eclipses | the caterpillar; the frog The colour of a lunar eclipse tells you which creature is eating the Moon: pale if it is the caterpillar Gongpatad, dark if it is the frog Beduk. Bhimnala reverses the pair, giving red for the scorpion and black for the frog. | tribal |
| Ture / Turre; Dukkar | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'a pig' The sixth animal, appearing only in some villages and read in opposite senses: a bad monsoon at Landgi Pod, a good one at Chinchpod and moderate rain at Kakban. At Raipur a further animal, Tumali, is named in the same list and left unglossed. | tribal |
| Veka Potur | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'the son of the morning' At Bhimnala the informants named the morning star Pele suka and then said that the star for waking up is a different one, Veka Potur. | tribal |
| Murda | Leo and Virgo | 'a dead body' Two of ten villages. | tribal |
| Suka erengten | Meteors and shooting stars | 'a broken star', 'a falling star' Glossed by the recorders as stellar excreta, and a bad omen. Four of ten villages. | tribal |
| Medi; Tandel / Aidal | Orion | the threshing post; the bull At Landgi Pod the whole region around Orion is a threshing floor: the post Medi, the bull Tandel or Aidal walking round it, and the ground between them the Kalave. | tribal |
| Tipan / Trivpate | Orion | a seed drill — the implement used to sow Nine of ten villages. | tribal |
| Kavadi Kunde / Kavde Kunde | Orion's Belt | 'the tower of three pots' At Raipur and Landgi Pod the three pots are the Belt of Orion and Tipan is the sword; the paper notes in the same breath that in the other villages Kavde Kunde is Cygnus. | tribal |
| Mekam / Mokam; Rohi; Gorya | Pegasus | 'a deer' Average rain at Landgi Pod and Raipur, less than normal at Chinchpod, more at one reading. | tribal |
| Samdur | Pegasus | 'a sea', from which the rain comes Eight of ten villages. Animal asterisms are seen around the Square — a peacock, a buffalo, a frog, a deer, a horse and sometimes a pig — and their relative brightness is taken to forecast the strength of the coming rain. | tribal |
| Pande; Beduk | Pisces | 'a frog' Brings good rain at Landgi Pod and Kakban, an excellent monsoon at Chinchpod. | tribal |
| Borenagu / Borenag / Bornagu; Nago; Nagun / Nagpan | Scorpius | 'a snake'; nāgun 'a cobra' Eight of ten villages. | tribal |
| Danedare Pila | Scorpius | Described as a spiral-shaped asterism; the recorders suggest it is the tail of Scorpius. Two of ten villages. | tribal |
| Tuntor / Tootera | Scorpius | 'a scorpion' Four of ten villages. | tribal |
| Met | Sirius | the pole to which the bull is tied on the threshing floor The bull walks a circle (kalave) around the pole to tread the grain from the husk. Five of ten villages. | tribal |
| Margam / Panadi / Bhori Sanko / Jev | The Milky Way | 'an animal path' Eight of ten villages. | tribal |
| Kovela Komdi | The Pleiades | 'the hen of the flock' — the little bright star at the foot of the cluster At Kakban, where the cluster itself is Kovela Kor, the flock of birds, and one bright star at its base is named separately. | tribal |
| Kovela Kor | The Pleiades | 'one large bird and several small ones' All ten villages — the most universal Kolam sky-figure. | tribal |
| Sappa | The Pleiades | an instrument used in processing the harvest One of ten villages. | tribal |
| Ayak / Aikawa / Ayyakawa | The rainbow | 'the grandparents' — Ayyak the grandfather at the violet end and awa the grandmother at the red Four of the ten villages. Read as the sign that the current rains have ended. At Landgi Pod it is instead the bow of Bhimayak, one of the five Kolam gods. | tribal |
| Dongal | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | 'the thieves' — a Kolam, a Gond and a Pardhan (chief), counting outward from the cot Nine of ten villages. | tribal |
| Mandater / Mandter / Mandetar; Ter / ava ter | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | 'a cot' Nine of ten villages. | tribal |
| Jevan suka | Venus as evening star | 'the star of dinner time' Nine of ten villages. | tribal |
| Pele suka | Venus as morning star | At Bhimnala, beside Vegud suka elsewhere. | tribal |
| Vegud suka | Venus as morning star | 'the star of the morning' Nine of ten villages. | tribal |
Sources
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2, p. 71 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2 row 12, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.2 (Janguguda), p. 80 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.1 (Dubaguda), p. 80, and 1.2.3 (Jamini), p. 81 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.9 (Raipur), p. 83 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.6 (Landgi Pod), p. 82 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.3 (Jamini), p. 81 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.1 (Dubaguda), p. 79 and 1.2.10 (Kakban), p. 84 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2 row 22, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.1 (Dubaguda), p. 79 and 1.2.10 (Kakban), p. 84 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2 row 12, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.6 (Landgi Pod), p. 82 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.8 (Bhimnala), p. 83 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.6 (Landgi Pod), p. 82, and 1.2.9 (Raipur), p. 83 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.6 (Landgi Pod) and 1.2.7 (Chinchpod), p. 82 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Appendix 1.2.10 (Kakban), p. 84 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2 row 24, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.10 (Kakban), p. 84 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.7 (Chinchpod), p. 82, and 1.2.9 (Raipur), p. 83 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.3 (Jamini) to 1.2.9 (Raipur), pp. 81-83 link