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Ursa Minor
circumpolar figure — glossed 'the Big Bear' but described as a lizard-shaped chain ending at Polaris · Ursa Minor / Draco / Ursa Major
names 45languages 26stars 7
In the classical tradition this is ध्रुवः Dhruva, attested in 7 texts.
The names
vernacular 14 · folk 2 · tribal 6 · borrowed 23
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| গোধিকা godhikā | Assamese Assam | 'the iguana / monitor lizard' (Assamese গুঁই guñi) A genuine Assamese sky-figure, and an old one: the dictionary supports it with a line from the Kīrttana (the Kīrttana-ghoṣā of Śaṅkaradeva, 16th c.) — 'গোধিকাৰ পুছ ভাগে দেখিয় অদ্যাপি', 'even today it is seen at the tail-end of the Godhikā'. | vernacular |
| ধ্রুব dhruba | Bengali Bengal | 'the fixed one' The entry keeps both the Purāṇic prince and the star in one lemma, and the adjectival sense 'sure, certain, fixed' alongside them. | borrowed |
| Medhi Taara | Bhili Chikhli, Bhil village, north-western Maharashtra | 'the pole star', medhi being the central post of an oil mill All the other stars go round the Medhi Taara as the oxen go round the post of the mill. At Madkani the Bhils hold that if it is ever not seen, an important person has died. | tribal |
| ގަހާތަރި gahaathari | Divehi (Mahl) the Maldives, and Minicoy (Maliku) in Lakshadweep, which speaks the same language and keeps the same calendar | 'the planet-star' Maniku analyses it as Sinhala gaha 'planet' (Sanskrit graha) plus Divehi thari 'star', and gives the archaic form ގަހި gahi, 'pole star', at the next headword. | borrowed |
| Dhruva Tara; Mout Tara | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | Dhruva's star; the umbilical star | borrowed |
| रीछ / ريچهـ baṛā rīchh / chhoṭā rīchh | Hindi Hindustani generally | 'the big bear' / 'the little bear' A calque, almost certainly of Arabic ad-dubb al-akbar / al-aṣghar rather than of English, since Fallon himself glosses sapt-rishī with 'A. dub-i-asgar'. The word rīchh is the inherited Indo-Aryan reflex of Sanskrit ṛkṣa, which in Sanskrit already meant both 'bear' and 'star' - so the calque lands on a word that was etymologically waiting for it. | vernacular |
| धुरू / دهرو dhurū tārā (dhruv-tārā) | Hindi Hindustani generally; the ritual is reported for Punjabi Hindus | 'the fixed star' Fallon's headword form dhurū is the vernacular reduction of Sanskrit dhruva, and he equates it directly with Arabic quṭb - the two layers glossing each other on one line. Ethnographically the star carries a vow: a Punjabi Hindu who salutes Dhrū for forty nights with his turban round his neck is said to learn of his death forty days in advance and to be joined to Dhrū's world after it. | borrowed |
| लघु सप्तर्षि laghu saptarṣi | Hindi Pan-Hindi (national print) | the lesser seven sages The book's भारतीय नाम for the constellation in its complete 88-constellation concordance. Muley himself notes (p. ~16) that uniform Indian names across languages were still to be settled — the set is part report of circulating usage, part proposal. Prose also reports the pauranik शिशुमार चक्र for this circumpolar figure. Dikshit's ध्रुवमत्स्य (1893, also Maharashtra Sabdakosa) is the older Devanagari name. | vernacular |
| ಧ್ರುವ Dhruva | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore) | the fixed one | borrowed |
| ಔತ್ತಾನಪಾದಿ auttānapādi | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | son of Uttānapāda | borrowed |
| ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಕರಡಿ cikka karaḍi | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore) | the little bear The book's Kannada rendering of the Western name, presented as such — the rendering itself entered Kannada astronomy vocabulary. | vernacular |
| ಧ್ರುವ dhruva | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | fixed, immovable Also ಧ್ರುವನಕ್ಷತ್ರ dhruva-nakṣatra, same page. | borrowed |
| ಧ್ರುವಪಾಶ dhruvapāśa | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | the pole-star rope COSMOLOGY. The earth is held up by a rope tied to the pole star. | folk |
| ಲಘು ಸಪ್ತರ್ಷಿ laghu saptarṣi | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore) | the lesser seven sages The tradition's Saptarṣi extended with laghu- for the Little Bear — a modern formation on Sanskrit material. | vernacular |
| ध्रुव् druv | Kashmiri Kashmir valley | The compound druva-rāz, 'king Dhruva', is given as an equivalent. | borrowed |
| Dhur tara | Korku Melghat, Amravati district, Maharashtra, and adjoining Betul and Khandwa districts, Madhya Pradesh | Given with apparent magnitude 1.95. | borrowed |
| Raaja | Kukna (Kokna) Pachmauli, Kokna village, north-western Maharashtra | 'the king' The Koknas at Pachmauli could only faintly recall the name. | tribal |
| Dhruv Tara / Dhruv | Lambadi (Banjara) Banjara tandas of Vidarbha, Maharashtra (villages in the Nagpur–Amravati–Yavatmal region) | At Katarwadi the pole star is Dhruv tara, which the recorders mark as the modern-language word; at Phulumari Dhruv is one of three stars used to fix direction, showing north, beside Porya the morning star showing east and Vani tara at the zenith. | borrowed |
| ധ്രുവം / ധ്രുവന് dhruvam / dhruvan | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'the fixed one' ധ്രുവം കൂട്ടുക is a technical phrase 'to make an astrological calculation'. | borrowed |
| ഋക്ഷം ṛkṣam | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'bear' Used in the compound ജന്മര്ക്ഷദിനം 'the day of one's birth-asterism'. | borrowed |
| Tārā-bāras | Marathi Bombay Presidency (Deccan and Konkan) | 'the star twelfth', bāras being the twelfth day of the lunar fortnight Married couples are made to look at the pole star immediately after the priest ties the marriage knot; Enthoven names the rite in a footnote. The showing of Arundhatī to the bride, as a lesson in chastity, is the companion rite on the same page. | borrowed |
| ध्रुव dhruva | Marathi Maharashtra | fixed, immovable | borrowed |
| ध्रुवमत्स्य dhruvamatsya | Marathi Maharashtra | the pole-fish | vernacular |
| धुरु dhuru | Marathi Maharashtra | — | borrowed |
| मेढ mēḍha | Marathi Maharashtra | a forked stake used as a post | vernacular |
| मेढेमत mēḍhēmata | Marathi Maharashtra | the doctrine of the pole-star the name of a non-Brahman astrological sect and of its practitioners (मेढेजोशी) | folk |
| Juga Medhi | Mavchi Mavchi Bhil villages, north-western Maharashtra | 'the central post of the world' | tribal |
| ꯙ꯭ꯔꯨꯕꯇꯥꯔꯥ dhrubatarā | Meitei (Manipuri) Manipur | — | borrowed |
| Hmar Arsi Sen | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| ध्रुब्-तारो dhrub-tāro | Nepali Nepal, and the Nepali-speaking Darjeeling and Sikkim hills | — | borrowed |
| ସୌମ୍ୟ ଧ୍ରୁବ / ଯାମ୍ୟ ଧ୍ରୁବ Sa̲u̲mya dhruba / J̄āmya dhruba | Odia Odisha | 'the northern Dhruva' and 'the southern (Yama's) Dhruva' A pair coined to hold a fact European astronomy supplied: there are two poles, and only the northern one is visible from India. For the southern, Praharaj records the working substitute — since we cannot see it, the southernmost bright star of the Triśaṅku group above the south pole point is taken to be the south pole star. | borrowed |
| Shendi Taro | Pauri Bareli (Pawra) Pawra villages, north-western Maharashtra | The authors record their own doubt: they suspect the Pawras may have confused it with a comet. | tribal |
| دُرۇتارو durū tāro | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | — | borrowed |
| جَديِ jadī | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | — | vernacular |
| قُطِبُ quṭubu | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | The same entry runs on into the geographical poles and the arctic and antarctic circles, and into قُطِبنُما quṭub-numā, the mariner's compass. | vernacular |
| اُتر قُطبُ utar quṭub; dro, ḍro | Sindhi Sind; Baloch's dictionary is not dialect-marked at these entries | Baloch defines the northern pole and then names the star: quṭub tāro, dro, ḍro. | borrowed |
| ڊۇهُ ḍūhu | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | The same word is an adjective meaning motionless, stationary, stable. | vernacular |
| ධ්රැව·තාරකාව dhræva·tārakāva | Sinhala Sri Lanka | 'the fixed star' | borrowed |
| துருவம் turuvam | Tamil Tamil Nadu | Sanskrit Dhruva in Tamil phonology. No indigenous Tamil name for the pole star was found in either the Tamil Lexicon or Winslow — every Tamil term for it is built on this loan. | borrowed |
| ధ్రువనక్షత్రము dhruva-nakṣatramu | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | the fixed star | borrowed |
| Kalit Pich | Teressa Teressa island, Nicobars | The generic word for 'star' on the same island is Kalit picho. | tribal |
| skar-ma brtan-pa; gzaʼ-yi rten | Tibetan Written Tibetan; Jäschke's dialects are those of Lahaul, Spiti and Ladakh, where he worked from Kyelang, and Das's are Central Tibetan as read in Darjeeling | 'the fixed star'; 'the support of the planets' Das explains the second name: it is called the fixed one because it remains immovable above all the planets. | vernacular |
| فرقدان farqadān | Urdu Urdu, from Arabic | 'the two calves' (dual of farqad 'a calf') The Arabic al-farqadān, the pair that circles close to the pole. Shakespear (1834, p. 1258) muddles them as 'Two stars near the pole, the greater and lesser bears'; Platts has the identification right. | vernacular |
| جدي jadī | Urdu Urdu, from Arabic | 'the kid, the young he-goat' The Arabic al-jady, the same word as the zodiac sign Capricorn, used for the pole star itself - a name that pins the star rather than the constellation. | vernacular |
| قطبي quṭbī tārā | Urdu Urdu, from Arabic/Persian | 'the polar star' A hybrid: Arabic quṭb 'pivot, pole' with the Indic word tārā 'star'. The naked Arabic quṭb alone is also used for the pole star (Platts p. 792; Fallon p. 888). | vernacular |
Sources
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. গোধিকা godhikā, p. 308 link
- Sailendra Biswas, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, 3rd ed., Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 2000 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ধ্রুব dhruba, p. 548 link
- Shreya Shetye, Ganesh Halkare and Aniket Sule, 'Bhil, Pawra and Kokna astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 26(2), 441-468 (2023), p. 464 link
- Hassan Ahmed Maniku, A Concise Etymological Vocabulary of Dhivehi Language, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, Special Volume XLIV (Colombo, 2000), s.v. gahaathari, p. 95 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416 link
- S. W. Fallon, A New Hindustani-English Dictionary (Banaras/London, 1879), s.v. rīchh, p. 722 link
- S. W. Fallon, A New Hindustani-English Dictionary (Banaras/London, 1879), s.v. dhur'ū, p. 656 link
- Gunakar Muley, Akash Darshan (New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, 1993), Appendix 4, 'Tara-mandal suchi', pp. 344-347, and p. ~141 link
- N. Venkatesha Ayyangar (transl.), Jyotirvinodini (Bengaluru: Karnataka Sahitya Parishattu, 1931; Karnataka Vaijnanika Grantha Mala 1), Appendix III (alphabetical sky-index), pp. 301-306 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. ಔತ್ತಾನಪಾದಿ auttānapādi, p. 344 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. ಧ್ರುವ dhruva, p. 877 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. ಧ್ರುವಪಾಶ dhruvapāśa, p. 877 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. druv, p. 250 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare and Purushottam Dahedar, 'Astronomy of the Korku tribe of India', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 19(2), 216-232 (2016), Table 2, p. 221 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 1.1.2 (Phulumari) and 1.1.3 (Katarwadi), p. 78 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. ധ്രുവം dhruvam, p. 523 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. ഋക്ഷം ṛkṣam, p. 153 link
- R. E. Enthoven, The Folklore of Bombay (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 68 link
- J. T. Molesworth, A Dictionary, Marathi and English, 2nd ed. rev. and enl. (Bombay: Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857), s.v. ध्रुव, p. 446 link
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- J. T. Molesworth, A Dictionary, Marathi and English, 2nd ed. rev. and enl. (Bombay: Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857), s.v. धुरु, p. 442 link
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- H. Surmangol Sharma, Learners' Manipuri-English Dictionary (Imphal, 2006), s.v. dhrubatarā, p. 97 link
- N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan, 1932), p. 497 link
- R. L. Turner, A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali Language (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1931), s.v. ध्रुब्-तारो, p. 280 link
- G. C. Praharaj, Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha: a lexicon of the Oriya language, Cuttack: Utkal Sahitya Press, 1931-1940 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ଯାମ୍ୟ ଧ୍ରୁବ J̄āmya dhruba, p. 6820 link
- Parmanand Mewaram, A Sindhi-English Dictionary (Hyderabad, Sind: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society, 1910), s.v. دُرۇتارو, p. 241 link
- Parmanand Mewaram, A Sindhi-English Dictionary (Hyderabad, Sind: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society, 1910), s.v. جَديِ, p. 172 link
- Parmanand Mewaram, A Sindhi-English Dictionary (Hyderabad, Sind: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society, 1910), s.v. قُطِبُ, p. 387 link
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- Parmanand Mewaram, A Sindhi-English Dictionary (Hyderabad, Sind: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society, 1910), s.v. ڊۇهُ, p. 273 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. ධ්රැව·තාරකාව dhræva·tārakāva, p. 312 link
- Tamil Lexicon (University of Madras, 1924-36), s.v. துருவம் sense 4, vol. IV p. 1984, marked (W.) after Winslow 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. ధ్రువుడు dhruvuḍu, p. 626 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
- Sarat Chandra Das, A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1902), s.v. skar-ma brtan-pa, gzaʼ-yi rten link
- John T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English (London, 1884), s.v. farqadān, p. 779 link
- John T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English (London, 1884), s.v. jadī, p. 378 link
- John T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English (London, 1884), s.v. quṭbī, p. 792 link