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Meteors and shooting stars
meteor
names 45languages 33
In the classical tradition this is तारा Tārā, attested in 1 texts.
The names
vernacular 11 · folk 4 · tribal 23 · borrowed 7
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| পপীয়া-তৰা papīẏā-tarā | Assamese Assam | 'the sinful star' (পপীয়া < Skt. pāpa 'sin') The everyday Assamese word: the dictionary's own definition of উল্কা ulkā (p. 140) ends by equating it with পপীয়া তৰা. A meteor is bad luck made visible, and the name says so. | folk |
| নক্ষত্রপাত nakṣatra-pāta | Bengali Bengal (stated by the dictionary to be the usage of 'this country') | 'star-fall' Recorded because of the explicit statement of regional usage in the parenthesis: 'in this country a meteor-fall is called nakṣatrapāta'. The same entry supplies the colloquial Bengali pronunciations of নক্ষত্র — নোক্খোত্তোর, নখতর, নোখতা. | vernacular |
| তারা খসা tārā khasā | Bengali Bengal | 'a star slipping loose' Dāsa defines the Sanskrit উল্কাপাত by this ordinary Bengali phrase and by nothing else. | folk |
| তারাপতন, তারাপাত tārā-patana, tārā-pāta | Bengali Bengal | 'star-fall' Sub-lemmas under তারা. The learned word উল্কা ulkā is at p. 172 ('an aerolite or aerolith, a shooting star, a meteor'); তারাপতন is the transparent Bengali compound beside it. | vernacular |
| Muk Sako | Central Nicobarese (Camorta) Camorta, Nancowry group, Central Nicobars | — | tribal |
| Bamohngo | Chaura (Chowra) Chowra (Chaura) island, Nicobars | 'a star thrown into a dustbin' Given for Teressa as Tamohngo liat. | tribal |
| — | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | Elwin collected five explanations in five districts: a jiv sent down by Bhagavan to live again on earth (Mandla), star excrement (Baihar), the spirit of a sinner burning (Rewa), a spirit coming down to earth to make a woman pregnant (Dindori), and a star that has come down to graze (Kawardha). | tribal |
| ChootuPaayuka | Cholanaikkan the reserved forests of Nilambur, Malappuram district, Kerala | from Malayalam cūṭṭu, a torch of dried coconut leaves, and pāyuka, 'to run fast' They consider shooting stars to be gods and call them by this phrase. | tribal |
| Katui | Cholanaikkan the reserved forests of Nilambur, Malappuram district, Kerala | the recorders gloss it as resembling embers of a fire They take a shooting star to be embers of the fire sent by the gods. | tribal |
| ގިނިހިލަ gini-hila | Divehi (Mahl) the Maldives, and Minicoy (Maliku) in Lakshadweep, which speaks the same language and keeps the same calendar | 'fire-stone', from gini 'spark, scintilla, flash' Maniku gives it at the headword gini 'spark', with gini-kandhu 'meteorite' beside it. | vernacular |
| Do·sadil-Mingitir | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | A star that married a clod of earth, married another star afterwards, and has never forgotten its first love — it comes down to earth from time to time to see her. | tribal |
| Sukum, Sukir, Huko, Tara; Sukum Pelkta, Huko Pelkat, Tara Urungta | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | star; star excreta Meteors are the excrement of the stars, or in some villages souls falling back from their holy places in the sky. | tribal |
| ākās-agan-golā | Hindi Hindustani generally | 'sky-fire-ball' A three-word descriptive compound, entirely vernacular in its material. Beside it Platts records the simple idiom tārā ṭūṭnā, 'a star to shoot' (p. 304), and the Hindi luk (p. 958, from S. ulkā) 'a fiery phenomenon in the sky; meteor; falling star'. | folk |
| ಉಲ್ಕಾಪಾತ ulkāpāta | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | the falling of a firebrand | borrowed |
| वुल्का wulkā | Kashmiri Kashmir valley | — | borrowed |
| Suka erengten | Kolami Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana | 'a broken star', 'a falling star' Glossed by the recorders as stellar excreta, and a bad omen. Four of ten villages. | tribal |
| suka piu (pl. suka pinga) | Kui the Kondh hills of Odisha | — | tribal |
| chir'u bīnkō; cherkā bīnkō | Kurukh Chota Nagpur plateau (Oraon country), Jharkhand | — | tribal |
| Tara tutgo | Lambadi (Banjara) Banjara tandas of Vidarbha, Maharashtra (villages in the Nagpur–Amravati–Yavatmal region) | 'a broken star' / 'a falling star' Usually a bad omen. Reported in five of six villages. | tribal |
| കൊളളിമീന് koḷḷimīn | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'firebrand-star' (കൊളളി firebrand + മീന് star) Used with the verb വീഴുക 'to fall': കൊളളിമീന് വീഴുക 'a meteor falls'. Gundert also records അശനിക്കൊളളിമീന് 'thunderbolt-firebrand-star' from Kṛṣṇagāthā, in a list of portents alongside earthquake. | vernacular |
| ഉല്ക ulka | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'firebrand' | borrowed |
| Awsi-ih | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | 'star-dung' Caused by a star defecating, the dung falling to earth. A shooting star can sometimes be picked up afterwards: it looks like a water snail and is green, though nobody has ever seen one actually reach the ground. Finding one has no effect on either men or crops. | tribal |
| Sachhipu | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | The land it falls on is sure to bear a good crop. It differs from the Awsi-ih in that it can be seen to fall to the earth, and from the Lushei Chhawifa in that it comes out of the sky rather than starting from somebody's house. | tribal |
| Thla-shi-pu | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) | Where it falls is where next year's swidden should be cut. | tribal |
| Vāyu-maṇḍal, Varuṇa-maṇḍal, Indra-maṇḍal, Agni-maṇḍal | Marathi Bombay Presidency (Deccan and Konkan) | 'the circle of Vāyu (wind), of Varuṇa (waters), of Indra, of Agni (fire)' A meteor is auspicious or baneful according to which group it is seen to fall from: out of the Vāyu-maṇḍal it portends an epidemic; out of the Varuṇa-maṇḍal it is favourable to human happiness; out of the Indra-maṇḍal it forebodes danger to all kings; out of the Agni-maṇḍal it threatens war between nations. Enthoven adds that during the monsoon the rain is expected in whatever direction a meteor shoots, and that in the Kanara District a meteor falling into the sea is held to promise rain — the same event read as a threat inland and as a blessing on the coast. | borrowed |
| अस्मानतारा asmānatārā | Marathi Maharashtra | sky-star | vernacular |
| तारा tārā | Marathi Maharashtra | star तारे तुटणें, 'the stars break off', is the Marathi idiom for meteors | borrowed |
| ꯁꯡꯒꯥꯏꯁꯦꯟ sanggāisen | Meitei (Manipuri) Manipur | — | tribal |
| ꯊꯋꯥꯟꯃꯤꯆꯥꯛ ꯃꯊꯤ thawānmicāk mathi | Meitei (Manipuri) Manipur | 'star-faeces' Sharma prints the morphological analysis himself: thawanmicak 'star' + mathi 'faeces'. | tribal |
| Chawifa | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| arsi thlâwk | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| ipilko ic' | Mundari Chota Nagpur plateau, Ranchi district, Jharkhand | the excrements of the stars Most noticeable about the middle of November, when the threshing floors are made and must be watched at night. 'Tonight the stars have many evacuations.' | tribal |
| फुट्ने तारो phuṭne tāro | Nepali Nepal, and the Nepali-speaking Darjeeling and Sikkim hills | 'the bursting star' At the verb phuṭnu 'to burst, break, burst out'. | vernacular |
| म्हेप्वना तहाँ नगु mhepwanā tahā̃ nagu | Newar (Nepal Bhasa) the Kathmandu valley | 'the star with a drawn-out tail' At the headword nhipyaṃ 'tail'. | vernacular |
| उलोक ulok, ulak | Newar (Nepal Bhasa) the Kathmandu valley | Jørgensen derives it from Sanskrit ulkā. | borrowed |
| Taro tutyo, Tara tuti gi, Channi tuti | Pardhi fourteen Pardhi villages of the Amravati and Yeotmal districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, surveyed 2016-2018 | 'the star has broken' Recorded in all fourteen villages and read as a bad omen in eleven — the most consistently ominous thing in the Pardhi sky. | tribal |
| shenyü keche (A); awachi keshenchowa (B); awachi kopruwa (C) | Rengma Naga the Rengma country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland), and the Mikir Hills | 'falling stars' | tribal |
| Ipil ic' | Santali Santal Parganas, Jharkhand / adjoining Bengal and Odisha | star excrement | tribal |
| ayeba | Sema (Sumi) Naga the Sema country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland) | 'star-dung' | tribal |
| උල්කාව ulkāva | Sinhala Sri Lanka | 'firebrand' | borrowed |
| விண்வீழ்கொள்ளி viṇ-vīḻ-koḷḷi | Tamil Tamil Nadu | sky-falling firebrand The standard Tamil term for a meteor, and the word the Lexicon uses to define the Sanskrit uṟkam and tūmakētu. Entirely Tamil in its elements. | vernacular |
| வீழ்மீன் vīḻ-mīṉ | Tamil Tamil Nadu | falling star The -mīṉ form of the same idea, and the one attested in the commentary tradition on the Tolkāppiyam. | vernacular |
| ఆదోకపాటు ādōka-pāṭu | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | falling like a cow's tail Not a name for a body but the idiom for the motion: a meteor falls 'cow-tail-wise', i.e. slanting and tapering. | folk |
| ಆಕಾಶೊಡ್ಡು ಬೂರ್ದಿ ಕಲ್ಲ್ ākāśoḍḍu būrdi kallụ | Tulu South Canara (Tulu Nadu) | 'the stone that fell from the sky' | vernacular |
| شہاب shihāb (vulg. shahāb) | Urdu Urdu, from Arabic | 'a firebrand, a flame' Qur'anic in origin - the shihāb thāqib hurled at eavesdropping jinn. Crooke found the word alive as a name for eerie lights in Rohilkhand and western Oudh, where the Shahaba over battlefield burial-grounds is a phantom army. | vernacular |
Sources
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. পপীয়া papīẏā, sub-lemma পপীয়া-তৰা, p. 575 link
- Jñānendramohana Dāsa, Bāṅgālā Bhāṣāra Abhidhāna, 2nd rev. ed., Kalikātā: Indian Publishing House [bhūmikā 1937] (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. নক্ষত্র nakṣatra, sub-lemma ̃পাত, p. 1157 link
- Jñānendramohana Dāsa, Bāṅgālā Bhāṣāra Abhidhāna, 2nd rev. ed., Kalikātā: Indian Publishing House [bhūmikā 1937] (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. উল্কা ulkā, sub-lemma ̃পাত, p. 349 link
- Sailendra Biswas, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, 3rd ed., Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 2000 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. তারা tārā, sub-lemmas ~পতন, ~পাত, p. 458 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
- Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (London: John Murray, 1939), p. 335 link
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- 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. ಉಲ್ಕಾಪಾತ ulkāpāta, p. 257 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. wulkā, p. 1113 link
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