Kukśa

The verbal root kuś means “to extract”, “to prepare an essence”. For example, to draw honey from a honeycomb, to extract honey by squeezing the wax, to extract honey from flowers, to extract floral nectar from flowers, to prepare a floral essence, to extract medicinal material from green papaya and green spinach – all are functions of the verbal root kuś. The verbal root kuś also means, “to make a hole in the ground”. Kukśa is derived from the verbal root kuś and the suffix sa. The etymological meaning of kukśa is, “that in which a void or vacuum is created after extracting something”. If the abdomen is compressed, then the abdominal air moves. In colloquial usage, the hollow or void that appears in the upper part of the abdomen is called kukśa.

Kukśi

Kuś +ksi = kukśi. Usually the suffix i is used both in an affectionate sense and in a general sense; the suffix ki is used in a general sense and to denote result. And the suffix ksi is used in several specific senses. In ancient times certain scholars did not like to use the suffix ksi but other eminent scholars retained it because of its specific uses. You can also retain it since its use does not cause any serious complications. Etymologically kukśi refers to that void or nothingness that cannot be seen or discerned from the outside. The suffix ksi has been used here because it has this special connotation. Colloquially kukśi means “that void created inside the stomach due to hunger or any other reason”. Suppose a crocodile is hungry. A kukśi or void has been created inside its stomach. In this situation, if it eats a goat, then that kukśi will no longer exist. We say that a crocodile has devoured (kukśigata) a goat. Generally, if the second part of a compound word ends with the suffix kta or lyut́ then ii is inserted at the end of the preceding part. For instance, bhasma + bhúta = bhasmiibhúta [reduced to ashes]. Here the word bhúta ends with the suffix kta, so ii is inserted at the end of the word bhasma. In other words, the compound word becomes bhasmiibhúta. Similarly, sarala + krta = saraliikrta [simplification], nava + karańa = naviikarańa [renovation], khand́a + bhavana = khand́iibhavana [balkanization]. There is an i in the word kukśi, so kukśi + gata will not be kukśiigata but rather kukśigata; the i remains.

Kuńa

Kuńati is formed by adding ti in the present tense to the verbal root kuń. In this case the meaning of the root verb kuń is “to emit sounds intermittently”, “to eat while making occasional sounds”, “to move something around”. These are the etymological meanings of the word kuń. The colloquial meaning of the word kuń is “one who moves around in the midst of many others”. The Bengali word ekuńa is derived from this word kuń. The word ekuńa means “accumulation” or “cumulative figure”. If the present tense ti is added to the root kuń to form kuńayati, then it means “to converse about some important matter” or “to give advice”. If five people sit and discuss an important matter, then we can call their conversation kuńa; we can also use the word kuńacarcá. If a lawyer gives someone advice, we can also call it kuńayati. In this sense kuń + kan = kuńaka; the word means “lawyer” or “adviser in an important matter”.

In dysentery the pain that is sometimes present around the navel area is called kuńan. The word is derived from kuń + lyut́. In colloquial Bengali we also call it pet́ kuńan [pain in the belly]. By this you can understand that the expression pet́ kuńan is not native Bengali; it is a Sanskrit tatsama.

Kuńiká

Kuń + ikan + tá = kuńiká. The word kuńiká means “that with which non-liquid items (e.g., rice and pulse) are measured”, what we call kuńke in the spoken language.

Kuńi

Kuńa + i = kuńi. The word kuńi means “blunt weapon”. Its second meaning is “one who uses a blunt weapon”. Another meaning is “handicapped”, e.g., one who is without fingers, one whose fingers are crooked, a lame person, one who has a hare-lip (ganná kát́a), etc.

Kuńapa

Kuńa +apac = kuńapa, or kuńa + pá +d́a = kuńapa. In neuter gender the word kuńapa means “bad smell” or “foul smell”.

1. The foul smell given off by a carcass is called kuńapa.

2. The bad smell of a fetid drain is called kuńapa, that is, whenever anything smells rotten that foul smell is also called kuńapa. The bad scent from the leaves of the herb gáṋdál (Paederia foetida) is not kuńapa because that is its natural scent – that scent does not come from anything rotten. In masculine gender the word kuńapa, that is, kuńapah (declined like the word nara), means “the carcass of any animal”, “an unclaimed human corpse”.

3. The other meaning of kuńapa is “a kind of bird resembling a myna” or a shálikha [house-myna]. However it is not as quarrelsome as a shálikha; it lives in groups. It cannot speak like a myna but if it is properly trained it can speak a little. In certain rural areas of Bengal this bird is called a half-myna or half-shálikha (guye myná or guye shálikha). In chaste Bengali its masculine form is kuńapa, kuńapii in feminine gender.

Kutanu

Ku + tan +un = kutanu. Its etymological meaning is “ugly form” or “body made of clay” or “clay image” or “clay doll”. The verbal root tan means “to expand”. The word tanu is used etymologically to mean “that which increases” or “that whose nature is to increase”. The colloquial meaning of the word tanu is “physical body”.

The human body develops over the course of some months in the mother’s womb. Then after birth it continues to develop up until approximately the age of thirty-nine (in tropical countries). Hence up until the age of thirty-nine the human body is called tanu. In tropical countries the human body after the age of thirty-nine should be called shariira, that whose nature is to become thin or emaciated.

In colloquial usage kutanu means:

1. An ugly or distorted or mutilated body, or that person who has such a body.

2. Just as the quinquelemental body is called deha, the mental body is also called deha. The ugly mental body of a person, or the person who possesses that mental body, is called kutanu. In other words kutanu means “sinful mind”. The word kutanu in this sense is in many cases relative. The mother-in-law is good to everyone. She is especially good to her daughter, but to her daughter-in-law she is a quarrelsome shrew with a fish-knife in her hand. The daughter-in-law also is very good to everyone. The people in the neighborhood all praise her. But her mother-in-law is the mote in her eye, what in Hindi we call áṋkh kii kirkiri. Both of them are good, so they distance themselves from one another, arrange separate stoves, cook in separate kitchens, measure their rice with separate measuring cups from separate earthen jars and set them on their stoves. They are kutanu for each other.

   When they accidentally come face to face with one another it turns into a women’s battlefield at Kurukshetra. What to speak of their neighbours, even if the great sage Narada were to appear, he would not be able to stop the fight. If you tell the daughter-in-law, “Why can’t you hold your tongue? How long is your mother-in-law going to live?” She will immediately retort: “You’ll see; I’ll die and a banyan tree will grow on my grave and even then my mother-in-law won’t die.” If you tell the mother-in-law – “Why more? Haven’t you had enough of worldly life? Go, retire to Kashii [Varanasi].” She will immediately jump up and say: “I have barely turned eighty; is this any age to be going to Kashii? Let me live a worldly life for at least another twenty years more. Let me see my great-grandson be born and then I will think about going to Kashii. I am not going to give up my house keys so easily.” In this case the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law are kutanu for each other.

   If a visarga [aspirant letter] is added to the word kutanu, then its meaning becomes “Kubera”, the god of wealth. Kutanu means “Kubera” and atanu means “Cupid”, or the god of love.

Kutapa

Ku +tapa = kutapa, or ku + tapas = kutapah. Ku means “diminishing”, ku means “the Earth”, and ku means “that which has decayed”. The etymological meaning of kutapa is “that fire which has lost its heat”.

1. The colloquial meaning of kutapa (in neuter gender kutapaḿ) is “low intensity fire”, or “smouldering fire”, or “that fire which is not visible from the outside”, burning beneath the ashes.

2. Kutapa also refers to one’s daughter’s son, that is, grandson (daohitra or naptá). Daohitra means duhitá ’s [daughter’s] son. The word daohitra has been in use since ancient times. In Sindhi and Punjabi, two languages of West India, containing a large number of words derived from Vedic Sanskrit, the daughter’s son is called dohatara or dohatará, derived from the word daohitra. In the remaining parts of North India the daughter’s son is called náti, coming from naptá. The etymological meaning of the word naptá is “one who prevents downfall”, that is, in the absence of the son (puttra: one who saves a person from hell is known as put, so two t’s must be retained in the spelling of puttra), the grandson or daohitra was considered eligible to perform the funeral rites. In the present matriarchal and quasi-matriarchal family systems, the daughter’s son is also eligible to perform the funeral rites. One who saves one’s maternal grandfather from downfall by performing the funeral rites is naptá. Since in ancient times barbers used to help in the performance of funeral rites, one of the words for “barber” is also naptá. The word nápita [barber] in spoken Bengali comes from naptá. The words naptá and nápita have almost identical meanings. In modern Bengali the son’s son is also called náti. However the tadbhava word [Sanskrit-derived descendant] for “son’s son,” that is, paottra, (paottra > paotta > potá: pothá means “scrotum”) is potá. In North India the word potá is used. So one meaning of kutapa is daohitra.

3. The third meaning of kutapa is “receding period of time”. When it is nine o’clock and somebody asks you what time it is, you reply, “It is nine o’clock.” By the time you utter the last sound “ock” it is already a few moments past nine, that is, at that moment nine is already in the past. Similarly, by the time a bell announcing nine o’clock rings for the ninth time, it is certainly a few seconds past nine. That is why the convention in earlier times was that when announcing a particular hour, an additional eight seconds were allowed for the announcement period, that is, here a period of eight seconds would be added to nine as additional time. This additional time was called kutapa.

   According to the great sage Maharshi Kańáda, the first propounder of the atomic theory, instead of fixing only eight seconds for this, the time that is actually spent on the announcement, or expected to be spent, should be regarded as kutapa. This period of time can be less than eight seconds, exactly eight seconds or even a little more. Even though Maharshi Kańáda’s assertion is logical, it would not be proper to allow an indefinite period of time to indicate a particular hour. So it would be best to continue observing the tradition of adding eight seconds.

4. Everywhere at approximately noon the sun is in the middle of the sky. After twelve the sun declines towards the west. As the sun declines towards the west the heat radiated by the sun lessens. One of the meanings of the word ku is “to decrease gradually”. So from noon onwards one name of the sun is kutapa (kutapah).

5. That person who can come or go at any time, regardless of whether the sun is tapah (before twelve), kutapah (from twelve to sunset) or atapah (the absence of the sun in the sky, i.e. night), that is, that person who disregards tithi [day], is called a-tithi [guest]. So another meaning of the word kutapa (kutapah) is atithi.

6. That ideologically dedicated person who lives for the ideology, who treats the body as a means of materializing that ideology and takes the help of food and clothing to sustain the body or maintain good health, is called kutapah (dedicated life).

7. In ancient times the Brahmans, Kśatriyas and Vaishyas used to follow a certain ideology. As a symbol of their acceptance of this ideology they underwent the sacred thread ceremony, and those who underwent that ceremony were called dvija (“twiceborn”; “teeth” and “oviparous creatures” were also called dvija). So kutapah also means dvija.

8. There is a type of mountain goat in certain regions of Afghanistan, Russia, Tibet and India whose wool is used for making blankets. Both this type of goat, as well as the blankets made from their wool, are called kutapa.

9. String instruments have been used in music since ancient times. Some string instruments (e.g., violins) are played with bows. Again, some instruments are played with fingers outfitted with certain accessories. Musical instruments that are played with bows are called kutapa.

10. It is very difficult to have any idea of a bull’s temper at any particular moment. Sometimes in a certain place he will stand at the edge of a road, gentle and polite, as still as a rock, and then somewhere else he becomes excited and charges at people with his horns. So another meaning of kutapa is “bull”.

11. Another meaning of kutapa is “that nephew who is the son of one’s elder sister”.

12. Another meaning of the word kutapa is “fire”.

13. Another meaning of the word kutapa is Agnidevatá [the god of fire]; the feminine form of agni [fire] is agnáyii.

14. Another meaning of the word kutapa is “durvá grass,” which is used when bestowing blessings or during sacrificial ceremonies (durvá>duvvá).

Kutu/Kutú

The word kutu is derived by adding the suffix uń to the verbal root kut (kuńt/kuti). The word kutú can also be derived by adding the suffix us. Both have the same meaning. The pronunciation in the Vedic age was kutu and in popular Sanskrit kutú. The meaning of the root kut is “to touch the ground”, “to make a bubbling sound”. Thus the etymological meaning of kutu/kutú is “that which touches the ground”, or “that which flutters” or “that which makes a bubbling sound”. In colloquial usage kutu means “large bottle”.

Kutuka

Kutu + kan = kutuka. The etymological meaning of kutuka is “the desire to know something in the hopes of getting pleasure”. Suppose somebody gives you led́ikeni [a kind of milk-sweet] to eat. You could well understand before you eat it that it is something delicious. While you understand that it is something delicious before eating it, you cannot determine what its name is; whether it is led́ikeni, pantuá or chánábaŕa [varieties of similar sweets]. Nor do you know how it is prepared. If you learn about it after eating it, then you might not relish the taste as much as you might have had you known beforehand, nor might you take as long to eat it. You might even think that had I known beforehand, I would have taken a little longer to enjoy it. Then when you come to know that it is made from milk curds – some ground milk curds [cheese] mixed together with semolina and then mixed with the remaining milk curds – it becomes all the more delicious. Then if the same preparation is fried in ghee, kept warm and then soaked in warm sugar syrup, its name would be led́ikeni. Once when Lord Canning came to Kolkata the Bengal government arranged for some famous confectioners to prepare this sweet in order to please the palate of this dignitary. It was given the name “Lady Canning” in honour of Mrs. Canning. Today it has become led́ikeni in Bengali, lat́kanii in Hindi (it is a feminine word; i.e., lat́kaniyáṋ biik rahii hai [lat́kaniyás are on sale]). After hearing this, one feels eager to know how it tasted. You should also take your time to enjoy it. Thus you will feel some curiosity to get to know this sweet.

Now you may have heard that when dried sweetened condensed milk (kśiira) is ground and mixed with milk curds along with some rice powder, its name is pántuá. Since it has comparatively more semolina, there is a hint of aristocracy in the flavour and scent of pántuá. Pántuá should have some syrup inside, but it will not be dripping wet or thoroughly soaked. Pánii means water; toya also means water. But both pánii and toya would be speechless to see the pantuá’s syrupy water. Thus the confectioners of Bengal towards the end of the Mughal era gave it the name pániitoya. That pániitoya has today become pántuá. So it is only natural that you have a sweet curiosity or kutuka to know that pániitoya!

When the capital of Bengal was transferred from Dacca to Murshidabad towards the end of the Mughal era, the best confectioners there, by order of the Nawab, prepared a milk- curd sweet and gave it the name chánábaŕa, and by doing so gave Lalbagh a place in history. Its specialty with respect to other sweets is that it is prepared from fresh, light cow’s milk curds. If it is prepared in good ghee, then it can be made very large. It is said that in olden times, a confectioner in Bahrampur prepared a chánábaŕá which weighed almost forty kilos. If true it would be rather amazing. So you must naturally have a sweet kutuka to know all about chánábaŕá.

Now if you find that the shape of the sweet is elongated, with rice powder mixed with the milk curds, but heated so that it absorbs sufficient syrup, much of which will come out if pressed, and the taste lingers in the mouth for a long time; for example, the lyáḿcá of Sháktigaŕa (many people mistakenly pronounce Burdwan’s Sháktigaŕa as Shaktigaŕa), then it is only natural that you will be interested in knowing all about lyáḿcá also.

So now you understand that kutuka means a desire to know whose final consequence is sweet – madhureńa samápayet [a meal should end with something sweet]. We derive the word kautuka [fun] by adding the suffix ań to kutuka.

The other meaning of the word kutuka is “small bottle”. Kutukii/kutikii means “phial”. It can also be spelled kutiiki/kutiki.

Kutupa

Kut+hupac/úpac = kutupa/kutúpa. Kutupa means “a leather bottle”, the kind that was used as a container for oil in ancient India. Even today in certain places in North India the oil extracted from jasmine flowers is sold in a kutupa. During our childhood in Bihar we saw the kutupa used in this way. We used to joke about the vendors who sold jasmine oil in kutupas:

Kyá terii kudrat kyá terá khel,
Chuchundar ká shar par cámeli ká tel.

[What is their divine power and what is their divine sport? Look, there is jasmine oil on the head of a mole.]

Kutupii means “leather phial”.

Kutuhala/Kutúhala

The etymological meaning of kutu/kutú is “that which makes a bubbling sound”. In colloquial usage it means “bottle”. Hala means “that which draws a line”. Its colloquial meaning is “plough”. The meaning of the word kutuhala/kutúhala is “to be filled with happiness by getting something”, or “to rejoice when getting something one likes or hearing news one likes”.
 

Talking about the meaning of kutúhala reminds me of an incident that happened long ago.

It was long ago, towards the end of British rule. One evening I went for a walk towards the hills. I was walking rather quickly. Suddenly I felt somebody walking behind me even faster. I ignored it. I did not look back.

Then I heard someone saying several times in a loud voice: “What a rascal, this Hirańakashipu’s rascal son Pellád, Hirańyakashipu’s rascal son Pellád.”

I turned back to find a familiar face, Viru da of Monghyr, Viru Roy. But once again I turned away. I thought that perhaps Viru Roy was in a somewhat unnatural state. You can certainly guess what I mean by “unnatural state”.

Yes, your guess is correct. Have I not told you that story of Krishnagar? One night a certain inveterate drunkard who had finished off an enormous kutú [bottle] fell in the gutter and was rolling around until he became senseless, exactly when no one knows. This memorable event of that night is not today a part of recorded history. Then dawn broke. The touch of the cold morning breeze and the cold water of the gutter sobered him. He opened his eyes and saw a large gathering of people around him. Someone was saying, “Oh, the fellow is dead!” Someone else was saying, “He drank so heavily that he passed out.” Yet another person was saying, “The fellow may not be drunk at all; it might be some other malady.” The drunkard was listening to everything, but out of shame he kept his eyes closed. Still, how long can one remain like that? One has to shake it off and get up. And so he had to open his eyes. As chance would have it, the moment he opened his eyes and looked at the crowd, he saw his son’s father-in-law standing directly in front of him. Then without any embarrassment at all, he said [to son’s father-in-law]: “Brother, it is not that what you think. It is my epilepsy.”

Anyhow, I was thinking what I was thinking about Viru Roy. Viru Roy was saying: “What a rascal, this Hirańakashipu’s rascal son Pellád, Hirańyakashipu’s rascal son Pellád.”

So, as I was saying, it was towards the end of British rule. As far as we know, in the Vedic age there was a tendency towards alcoholism. Perhaps even certain sages and saints also were also not immune to its influence. There was a great demand for bottles full of wine in the wine-seller’s shop [shaońd́ika⁽¹⁾]. This influence of the Vedic age continued into the pre-Buddhist period, and, it can be surmised, somewhat increased. During wartime, the king, bureaucrats and landlords of Magadha drank plenty of alcohol. Buddha reined in this behavoiur. He was concerned lest the good taste and refinements of society be washed away by alcohol addiction. Buddha spoke out against alcohol consumption. History shows that it was Buddha who directly opposed the consumption of alcohol in an outspoken manner. Buddha did not turn his attention to social reform. Had he done so, it would have been a very happy combination – sone meṋ sugandh [adding perfume to gold]. Still, owing to the influence of Buddha’s ethical doctrine there was a significant decrease in alcohol addiction, prostitution and gambling in social life. When people from other countries arrived in Sri Lanka for the first time, they were amazed to see the moral standard of the Sri Lankan Buddhist population. There was hardly any alcohol addiction, no visible prostitution and no gambling in their social life. Any rational person is forced to admit the fact that Buddha created an impetus toward morality in the psyche of the people of the world; however, it is not enough to propagate morality in the society. It also requires persons capable of tightly holding the reins of morality and keeping them under control. If there are no restraints in social life then morality flashes and disappears like lightning; it will not last. This is exactly what happened during the Buddhist era. Towards the end of that era, pollution crept into the Buddhist Tantric vámácára and kulácára, complete darkness.

When the Puranic religion (Brahminical religion) arose in the country, it did not make any attempt to stop the flow of alcohol. Royalty drank freely and that had an influence on their subjects. By then the Jain and Buddhist ethical doctrines had become extremely weak. There was not much heard about the impact of alcoholism among emperors during the Pathan era, but there was no effort to control alcoholic addiction in public life. The great souls who appeared in India towards the end of the Pathan era were people of the highest standard, but while none of them supported drinking, some were silent on the subject and others spoke very little about it. No one dealt a heavy blow to the consumption of alcohol. However, all of them strove to keep the society healthy.

Alcohol addiction decreased significantly in public life in ancient Bengal due to the impact of Maháprabhu Caitanyadeva. Even today drinking in the Bengali Vaiśńava community is not only disliked but in fact detasted. Drinking is condemned in the Muslin community on religious grounds. If any Vaiśńava or Muslim is addicted to drinking, then he or she loses all social prestige. It is worth noting that in those places in Bengal where there is a strong Vaiśńava or Muslim influence in social life, raw sugar is prepared from the date palm and palm tree, while in those areas where their influence is non-existence or relatively little the people prepare toddy from these palms.

The first influx of western civilization into India began approximately four hundred years ago. The western social outlook and lifestyle have been both beneficial and harmful for India. No doubt the benefit has been greater. But one of the negative effects is that it has led to an increase in alcohol addiction. Since the time of the Portuguese, different types of liquor have been manufactured and imported. Alcohol has gradually spread into the different strata of social life. Many poor and middle-class families have been washed away in a flood of alcohol, burnt to ashes in the fire of alcohol.

In pre-British India, the city police chief could take action against anyone if they were found inebriated in public, but that system went out of vogue after the Mughal period. Many Mughal emperors and kings were addicted to alcohol. Seeing them alcohol addiction increased among the upper classes. Drinking became a status symbol. This tradition continued during British rule. Rather than decreasing, alcohol addiction has increased after independence – there is no one whatsoever to curb it.

So, as I was saying, it seemed that Viru Roy was in an unnatural state. Viru Ray, I felt Viru Roy draw close to me. He was saying: “What a rascal this Hirańyakashipu’s rascal son Pellád, Hirańyakashipu’s rascal son Pellád.”

I assumed that there was singing and dancing throughout the night in the Sahibs’ club. Viru Roy was the manager of that club. There must have been some dregs left in the bottom of each bottle. Viru Roy must have poured the dregs of a hundred bottles into five bottles and drunk them off. Still I asked him, “O Viruda, who have you found for Hirańyakashipu, and who for Pellád? Oh I know, the sola hat on your head is Pellád. I have been seeing for the last five years that it neither grows nor decays. Pellád came through unscathed in any situation, whether rain or cold, in the forest or the mountains, and was always immune to any kind of decline, and your hat is just like him. If I take you to be Hirańyakashipu, then I have to call your hat Pellád.”

“No, no, no,” he replied, “you don’t know. In my house there is a real-life, flesh and blood Pellád.”

“How so?”

“My own brat, Tuntun Roy.”

“How so?” I asked again.

“This time Tuntun passed his matriculation examination. I have managed to forget that he failed five times. Today Tuntun passed. This pride of victory has made me jubilant.”

“Yes, indeed,” I said. “That’s simply splendid. This is a glittering festive joy, an outpouring of the heart.”

“What eighty-seven generations could not accomplish”, Viru Roy continued, “my rascal son Tuntun has done. Tell me then, in eighty-seven generations in my family no one has passed matriculation, and Tuntun has done it! What could make me prouder? What could make me happier? That is why I say that this rascal is Hirańyakashipu’s son Pellád, Hirańyakashipu’s son Pellád.”

“What arrangements are you making to commemorate this day?”

“I am going to entertain everyone in the neighborhood with laddoos and puris [sweets and fried bread]. So tonight you must return from your walk a little early.”

“I remember something which happened a long time ago,” I told him. “When Nakchedi Roy of our nearby village Milkichowk⁽²⁾ passed the matriculation exam, his grandfather, Harasita Roy, invited a large number of villagers and entertained them with cuŕá (pressed rice: cuŕá in Hindi, ciŕá, ciŕe in Bengali, cipit́aka in Sanskrit), peŕá [a milk sweet], and yoghurt, as much as they could eat. There was the famous pressed rice of Auṋgadesh’s Jagadishpur, peŕá from Punsia and yoghurt from Gauchárii.”

I happened to ask, rather unpsychologically, “In which division has he passed?”

“I have not enquired about the division,” Viru Roy replied, “but it is likely to be number 111 (III).”
 

The meaning of the neuter form of the word kutuhala/kutúhala, that is, kutuhalaḿ, is “question” or “inquisitiveness”. Kutuhala/kutúhala + ań = kautuhala, kautúhala.

Kunta

Kunta is derived from kut + ka. Etymologically kunta refers to that which is connected with land.

1. Colloquially kunta means that kind of bristly hair that will not lie flat even when it is oiled, pressed down and combed.

2. The second meaning of kunta is “untidy hair full of dust and sand”.

3. The third meaning of kunta is “hair matted with dust and sand”.

4. The fourth meaning of kunta is “a cap stuck to the head”.

5. Kunta also refers to a shovel with which things lying on the ground can be removed or can be lifted.

6. Another meaning of the word kunta is “grasshopper”.

7. Another meaning of the word kunta is kásha [a type of grass]. (Its flower blooms in autumn). The people of Mithila and Auṋgadesha believe that if a buffalo is fed a large quantity of káshá, the yoghurt made from its milk sets very nicely. Since ancient times, the gods, humans and demons in Sanskrit literature have all praised this yoghurt calling it máhiśaḿ dadhi [buffalo yoghurt]. (The word dadhi is neuter in gender.)

Kuntala

Kunta + lá + d́a or kańt + alac = kuntala. Whether it is derived from the verbal root lá or from the inflection alac, the la of kuntala must be the initial la. Its etymological meaning is “involved with work connected with the soil” or “that which flutters” or “that which emits a fluttering sound”. Colloquially kuntala is used in several ways.

1. The first meaning of the word kuntala is “curly hair”.

2. The second meaning of the word kuntala is “container with a handle for liquid”, for example, a teacup. If the expression ek káp cá dáo [give a cup of tea] is said without using any foreign word, it becomes ek kuntala kambala dáo.

3. We use the English word “barley” for the flour that is made by grinding peeled barley grain (yava). In English whole barley grain is also called barley. The ground yava or barley that a person takes for diarrhea is also called kuntala. Ordinarily we call barley grain yava. However, in the case of diarrhea, perhaps owing to the dominance of the English language, we do not call yava “ground yava” or “yava powder” but barley. The villagers of Ráŕh call it bárlika/bállika; the villagers of Magadha call it barlish.

4. Another meaning of kuntala is “plough” because a plough is pulled over the land when used.

5. Kuntala also means the large green variety of grasshopper. In Magahii this green grasshopper is called “Ramjii’s horse.” Do you know that famous verse?

   Yeman teman naiko ámi viirer mata viira,
   Ekti háte Rámer dhanu arek háte tiira,
   Márle jore kacurpáte ekebáre caocir.
   Yeman teman naiko ámi bábur mata bábu,
   Ek cumuke kheye pheli sáre tin ser sábu,
   Gauṋgá phariḿ dekhle pare amni bhaye kábu.

   [I am no ordinary fellow; I am a great hero.
   I have the bow of Rama in one hand and an arrow in the
   other.
   If I strike an arum leaf it is totally torn.
   I am no ordinary fellow; I am a great babu.
   I drink three and a half seers of sago in one swallow,
   But turn grey with fear the moment I see a green
   grasshopper.]

   ---

   Footnotes

   (1) Shaońd́ika > shaońd́ia > shaoṋŕia > shuṋŕi. In North India the word kalála is more common.

   (2) There was a time when very high quality milk was available in the village in great quantities. The sahibs of our area used to visit this place to buy good milk and eat good yoghurt. They used to say, “The milk in this village is very nice.” Since the sahibs called it “milk”, the name of the village eventually became Milkichowk. Long ago the people of the villages of Auṋgadesha used to give me yoghurt and dry condensed milk which they carried packed in a cloth. Even in those days the yoghurt of that place was so thick; its taste was exquisite and it was mixed with the essence of love.

   13 April 1986, Madhumalaiṋcha, Kolkata
   Published in:
   Shabda Cayaniká Part 5
   File name: Kuksa_to_Kuntala_discourse_30.html
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