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Comets
comet
names 45languages 30
The names
vernacular 19 · folk 5 · tribal 12 · borrowed 9
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zudio-khupu, Zudio-mikhu | Angami Naga the Angami country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland) | 'Zudio's pipe', 'Zudio's smoke' A dying man named Zudio said that seven days after his death he would smoke his pipe and everyone would see the smoke of it in the sky, and that after seven generations he would show himself again. A comet appeared after his death, and is seen at rare and long intervals. | tribal |
| নেজাল তৰা nejāl tarā | Assamese Upper Assam (Sibsagar) | 'tailed star' — Bronson's Assamese gloss spells it out, নেজ লগা তৰা, 'a star with a tail attached' The 1867 attestation of the word the Candrakanta Abhidhana still carries in 1962 (p. 562), which makes it the best-dated vernacular star-word in this file. Bronson's neighbouring entries give the Assamese meteor vocabulary too: উল্কাপাত at p. 72 is glossed with পপিয়া তৰা, and ধুমকেতু at p. 308 is glossed as a meteor rather than a comet. | vernacular |
| নেজাল তৰা nejāla tarā | Assamese Assam | 'tailed star' Glossed by the tatsama ধূমকেতু. The same 'tail-star' formation is the ordinary Odia word (ଲଞ୍ଜା ତାରା lañjā tārā, ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଡ଼ା ତାରା lāṅguṛā tārā, in this file); Praharaj's synonym column prints a Bengali cognate against it as well. | vernacular |
| ঝাঁটাতারা jhām̐ṭātārā | Bengali Bengal (marked গ্রা◦, colloquial) | 'the broom star' — Dāsa's own bracket says 'because it is shaped like a broom' The Bengali folk comet-word, standing beside the learned ধূমকেতু, whose definition in the same dictionary (p. 1147) also reaches for the broom: 'a luminous body whose rays are shaped like a jhāṛu'. | folk |
| কবন্ধ kabandha | Bengali Bengal | 'a headless trunk; a headless goblin' Beside the ordinary ধূমকেতু dhūmaketu (p. 544). The comet as a decapitated body is the same figure as the Rāhu/Ketu myth, and Biswas's entry runs the three senses together. | borrowed |
| Somom Chitri | Chaura (Chowra) Chowra (Chaura) island, Nicobars | Given for Teressa as Somom Vhitri. | tribal |
| Kayshar, Kaysaar; Bahari, Bohari; Jhadani, Jhadu; Bhimal Saat | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | a broom; Bhimal's sword A comet is the weapon of the great god Bhimal Pen, used to cleanse the sins of the world, and is therefore a good omen — the gods are sweeping away or cutting down the evil. In some villages Kayshar names the Pleiades instead. | tribal |
| झाड़ू / جهاڙو jhāṛū | Hindi Hindustani generally | 'a broom, a besom' A comet is simply a broom in the sky. The word is otherwise heavily charged in domestic usage - Fallon records the women's curse 'may the broom sweep through your house' - which suits the omen value comets carried. | folk |
| केत / کيت ket (dum kā tārā) | Hindi Hindustani generally; the tail-star form marked dakh. (Deccani) by Shakespear | 'tail star' ket is the vernacular reduction of Sanskrit Ketu, the descending node and mythic tail; Fallon parses the word for his readers as 'lit. tail star', which is a folk etymology but tells us how it was heard. The transparent Hindustani phrase dum kā tārā says the same thing outright. | folk |
| ಬಾಲಚಿಕ್ಕಿ bāla-cikki | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | the tail star Also ಬಾಲಚುಕ್ಕೆ bāla-cukke. The colloquial Kannada word. | vernacular |
| ಧೂಮಕೇತು dhūmakētu | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | whose banner is smoke | borrowed |
| केथ् kēth | Kashmiri Kashmir valley | The same word is Ketu, the descending lunar node counted as the ninth planet. | borrowed |
| 'lur-dih-duma | Khasi Khasi and Jaintia hills, Meghalaya | the tobacco-smoking star | tribal |
| Sipur suka | Kolami Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana | 'a star with a tail' A bad omen. Six of ten villages. | tribal |
| dumaket | Konkani South Kanara / Mangalore | marked (H. K.), i.e. a Hindu Konkani word | borrowed |
| lampuchhā tāro | Kumaoni Kumaon, United Provinces (now Uttarakhand) | 'the long-tailed star' From the Kumauni-English vocabulary appended to Grierson's Pahārī volume. | vernacular |
| calkī bīnkō; jhāl-bīnkō, jhālī-bīnkō | Kurukh Chota Nagpur plateau (Oraon country), Jharkhand | the broom star The appearance of a comet is read as an omen: 'a comet has appeared; we may have this year a famine as well as a plenteous crop.' | tribal |
| Seshar Tara | Lambadi (Banjara) Banjara tandas of Vidarbha, Maharashtra (villages in the Nagpur–Amravati–Yavatmal region) | 'a smoking star', or a star with a tail Read as an omen, good or bad according to the village. Reported in five of six villages. | tribal |
| ധൂമകേതു dhūmakētu | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'having smoke for its banner' Gundert's citation is about the direction of its rising: 'ധൂ. പടിഞ്ഞാറു ഉദിക്ക' — the comet rises in the west (from Brahmāṇḍapurāṇam), an omen datum. | borrowed |
| കുറക്കൊള്ളി kuṟakkoḷḷi | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'defect-firebrand' (കുറ want, defect, blemish + കൊള്ളി firebrand) An omen-word: Gundert glosses it 'a threatening meteor' and quotes a line meaning 'suddenly from the sky, the ku[ṟakkoḷḷi]'. | folk |
| വാല്മീന് vālmīn | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'tail-star' (വാല് tail + മീന് star) Gundert marks it V1 (Visscher/older vocabularies), i.e. attested in the earlier Malabar word-lists rather than only in literature. | vernacular |
| വാല്നക്ഷത്രം vālnakṣatram | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'tail-star' (native വാല് 'tail' + Sanskrit नक्षत्र) | vernacular |
| Awsithleupa | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | A herald of disease and famine; Khazangpa sends comets as a warning that bad times are coming. | tribal |
| शेंडेनक्षत्र śēṇḍēnakṣatra | Marathi Maharashtra | the topknot star / crested asterism | vernacular |
| si-mei-khu | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | si 'star', mei 'fire', khu 'smoke' | tribal |
| joṅg ipil | Mundari Chota Nagpur plateau, Ranchi district, Jharkhand | broom star Comets portend public calamities. The name is from joṅg, the broom the Mundas sweep their houses with. | tribal |
| अकास् को केतु akās ko ketu | Nepali Nepal, and the Nepali-speaking Darjeeling and Sikkim hills | 'the ketu of the sky' At akās 'sky, heavens'. Turner gives a proverb at the same headword turning on the phrase. | borrowed |
| पुछ्रे तारो puchre tāro | Nepali Nepal, and the Nepali-speaking Darjeeling and Sikkim hills | 'the tailed star' At the adjective puchre 'possessed of a tail, tailed', whose other compound puchre bhāg is the hind portion of a goat given to the Damāi and Kāmi castes as their fee. | vernacular |
| धुर्म्मकेतु dhurmmaketu | Newar (Nepal Bhasa) the Kathmandu valley | Malla glosses it 'name of a planet, a comet', from a manuscript of Nepal Saṃvat 883 (1763 CE), and derives it from Sanskrit dhūmaketu. | borrowed |
| ताहाव नगतिं tāhāva nagatiṃ | Newar (Nepal Bhasa) the Kathmandu valley | 'the long star' Malla glosses it 'shooting star, a comet' and quotes a manuscript of Nepal Saṃvat 811 (1691 CE): a shooting star appeared. He gives the modern form as tāhāhnagu. | vernacular |
| ଲଞ୍ଜା ତାରା Lan̄jā tārā | Odia Odisha | 'tail-star'; Praharaj adds the reason — 'because it has a line of light in it like a tail' Marked ଦେ. and illustrated from Rādhānātha Rāya's Yayāti. Variants and near-synonyms fill the same semantic field: ରଞ୍ଜା ତରା Rañjā tarā (p. 6955), ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଡ଼ା ତାରା Lāṅguṛā tārā (p. 7342), ନକ୍ଷତ୍ର ଲଞ୍ଜା Nakshatra lañjā (p. 4096), and ଲଞ୍ଜା alone (p. 7277). | vernacular |
| Dondo futi gyo, Dondo futyo, Igan Tara | Pardhi fourteen Pardhi villages of the Amravati and Yeotmal districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, surveyed 2016-2018 | 'the tail has burst out'; 'star having tail' Recorded in eleven villages, and read as a bad omen in seven of them. | tribal |
| puchhalwālā tārā / dumdār sitārā | Punjabi Punjab (contributed from Ambala by Chaina Mall) | 'the tailed star' (Indic and Perso-Arabic versions of the same phrase) Both layers side by side in one sentence, with an attached practice: on the appearance of a comet subscriptions were raised and Brahmans and mendicants fed, because a comet foretold epidemic or famine. | folk |
| Candbol ipil | Santali Santal Parganas, Jharkhand / adjoining Bengal and Odisha | tail star | tribal |
| چوٽيٴ تارو choṭīa tāro | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | 'the topknot star', from چوٽو choṭo, a topknot of hair | vernacular |
| ڌۇمِ ڪيتُ dhūmi ketu | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | — | borrowed |
| پُڇڙ پُڇِرُ تارو puchhaṛ, puchhiru tāro | Sindhi Sind; Baloch's dictionary is not dialect-marked at these entries | 'the tailed star' Defined as a star with a tail, a star that roams the sky — and glossed, in the dictionary's own Latin letters, comet. Its figurative sense is a false and mischief-making person. | vernacular |
| پُڇِرُ تارو puchiru tāro | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | 'the tailed star' | vernacular |
| දුම්·කෙහෙලිය dum·keheliya | Sinhala Sri Lanka | 'smoke-banner' (දුම් dum 'smoke' + කෙහෙලි keheli 'banner, trophy of victory') | vernacular |
| புகைக்கொடி pukai-k-koṭi | Tamil Tamil Nadu | smoke-banner, streamer of smoke A Tamil formation for a comet, from the Cilappatikāram's list of portents; the metaphor is a banner or creeper of smoke rather than a tailed star. | vernacular |
| தூமம் tūmam | Tamil Tamil Nadu | smoke (< Skt. dhūma) The Caṅkam word for a comet as a portent, in the Puṟanāṉūṟu omen-triad beside Saturn and Venus. | borrowed |
| வால்மீன் vāl-mīṉ | Tamil Tamil Nadu | tail-star The living Tamil word for a comet, formed on vāl 'tail' + mīṉ 'star'; வால்நட்சத்திரம் vāl-naṭcattiram is the same compound with the Sanskrit word for star, and is the commoner modern form. | vernacular |
| దుమగతికేతు duma-gati-kētu | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | — | vernacular |
| తోకచుక్క tōka-cukka | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | the tailed star The ordinary Telugu word for a comet, still current. | vernacular |
| ಬಾಲನಕ್ಷತ್ರ bālanakṣatra | Tulu South Canara (Tulu Nadu) | 'tail-star' | vernacular |
Sources
- J.H. Hutton, The Angami Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1921), Appendix VIII, p. 413 link
- M. Bronson, A Dictionary in Assamese and English, Sibsagor: American Baptist Mission Press, 1867, s.v. নেজাল তৰা, p. 327 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. নেজাল তৰা nejāla tarā, p. 562 link
- Jñānendramohana Dāsa, Bāṅgālā Bhāṣāra Abhidhāna, 2nd rev. ed., Kalikātā: Indian Publishing House [bhūmikā 1937] (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ঝাঁটাতারা jhām̐ṭātārā, p. 882 link
- Sailendra Biswas, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, 3rd ed., Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 2000 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. কবন্ধ kabandha, p. 202 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, S.A. Awaradi and Kishore Menon, 'In situ studies of astronomy of the Nicobarese tribe of Nicobar Islands', Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, 6, 1014-1039 (2018), Table 3, pp. 1026-1027 link
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- John T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English (London, 1884), s.v. jhāṛū, p. 400 link
- S. W. Fallon, A New Hindustani-English Dictionary (Banaras/London, 1879), s.v. ket, p. 980 link
- Kittel, F., A Kannaḍa-English Dictionary (orig. Mangalore: Basel Mission, 1894); cited from the revised and enlarged edition, [Madras] University of Madras, 1968-71, as keyed for DSAL, s.v. ಬಾಲ bāla, p. 1173 link
- Kittel, F., A Kannaḍa-English Dictionary (orig. Mangalore: Basel Mission, 1894); cited from the revised and enlarged edition, [Madras] University of Madras, 1968-71, as keyed for DSAL, s.v. ಧೂಮಕೇತು dhūmakētu, p. 875 link
- Sir George Abraham Grierson, A Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language, compiled partly from materials left by the late Pandit Isvara Kaula (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1916-1932), s.v. kēth, p. 488 link
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- George Abraham Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IX Part IV: Specimens of the Pahārī Languages and Gujurī (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1916), Kumauni-English Vocabulary, s.v. Lampuchhā tāro, p. 260 link
- Grignard, An Oraon-English Dictionary (1924), s.v. calkī, p. 123; s.v. bīnkō, p. 85 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 1, p. 69 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. ധൂമം dhūmam, p. 521 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. കുറ kuṟa, p. 270 link
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- G. C. Praharaj, Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha: a lexicon of the Oriya language, Cuttack: Utkal Sahitya Press, 1931-1940 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ଲଞ୍ଜା ତାରା Lan̄jā tārā, p. 7277 link
- Ganesh Halkare, Purushottam Dahedar, Wayne Orchiston and M.N. Vahia, 'Astronomy of the Pardhi tribe of central India', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 22(1), 179-194 (2019), Table 5, pp. 184-185 link
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- Brown, C. P., A Telugu-English Dictionary, new ed., thoroughly revised and brought up to date (Madras: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903), s.v. దుమగతికేతు duma-gati-kētu, p. 602 link
- Brown, C. P., A Telugu-English Dictionary, new ed., thoroughly revised and brought up to date (Madras: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903), s.v. తోక tōka, p. 563 link
- Männer, Tuḷu–English Dictionary (1886), s.v. ಬಾಲನಕ್ಷತ್ರ bālanakṣatra, p. 481 link
