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Tamil Bell

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Re: Tamil Bell

#81

Post by discardorama »

skrebbel wrote: post #37

> Translated, it says "Muhayideen Baksh’s ship’s bell". I like language, and this inscription makes me wonder. Why write on a bell that it's a bell? I'd be less surprised if the bell had said "Muhayideen Baksh’s ship". I mean, I get that school buildings say "School" because otherwise it's really just a building. But a bell? Isn't that a bit like writing "Headmaster's Office Door" on the headmaster's office door? I w…

In some languages, it makes sense to add the "bell", otherwise the sentence is incomplete.

In my native Hindi, you would say "X's ship's bell". If you drop the the "bell", it becomes "X's ship". Obviously it's not a ship. And if you drop the "ship", it becomes "X". That would mean the bell's name is "X". So the only complete, logical sentence has to be "X's ship's bell".

Re: Tamil Bell

#82

Post by simonh »

ianai wrote: post #28
noobermin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a physicist, and I imagine this sort of thing are like studies looking for magnetic monopoles, really out there stuff that capture the imagination of the public and non-experts, but are fringe and/or really difficult to get funding for vs. the usual, safe path.

I doubt it's necessarily that crazy. There's a lot more to the world and human history than documented. Plus, for some reason, 'the west' tends to have an insular viewpoint. Oddball physics has fewer avenues of 'being true but unobserved'. I need sleep.

We have enough provable, documented examples of very long range contact and trade that it seems highly implausible that there was no such contact that we aren't aware of. If a Christian monk can be born near Beijing in 1220, walk all the way to Europe and meet the pope then it' beggars belief that similar journeys were never done in more ancient times. After all Marco Polo wasn't the first European to go to China either, his father and uncle had been there before him.

I do accept that we have to distinguish between mythology and history, but lets analyse this according to scientific principles for a moment. If you have a theory and it accurately predicts what happens, we call that science. If the Aztec believed there were bearded white people living beyond the eastern sea that would one day come and conquer them, then it actually goes and happens, then I think it’s reasonable to take the origins of that belief seriously.

Re: Tamil Bell

#83

Post by devnonymous »

pvg wrote: post #80
palerdot wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More details on this context - the sharp scribe is wielded deftly so that they can write freely in the dried palm leaves. The sharp scribe is called "ezhuthaani" (where zhu is a special L sound) which literally means writing nail. The dried palm leaves are commonly referred as "olai suvadi" which literally means dry leaf book. PS: The word Tamil itself should be pronounced "Tamizh" where zh is a special "La" sound, u…

I think you mean something like 'stylus'. A scribe is a person.

A word can have more than one meanings. From https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Ascribe&oq=define%3A...

3. a pointed instrument used for making marks on wood, bricks, etc., to guide a saw or in signwriting.

Re: Tamil Bell

#84

Post by RajuVarghese »

msound wrote: post #67

The Tamils originally wrote on dried palm leaves with a sharp scribe. So, if you didn't want to tear the leaf, you had to avoid straight lines and dots. That's why there are so many curves in the script. Also, one of the meanings of my first name "Mani" is literally "Bell". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script Also: I'm Tamil.

Malayalam, the language of Kerala, is similarly curvy. Same reason. I have several old palm leaf 'books' with Malayalam script.

Re: Tamil Bell

#85

Post by msound »

msound wrote: post #67

The Tamils originally wrote on dried palm leaves with a sharp scribe. So, if you didn't want to tear the leaf, you had to avoid straight lines and dots. That's why there are so many curves in the script. Also, one of the meanings of my first name "Mani" is literally "Bell". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script Also: I'm Tamil.

If you observe the 2 scripts in the pic in wikipedia, you would notice that in the original one, the "i's are not dotted" as it were. This seems to be a practice that has carried over from palm leaf writing to metal inscriptions.

Re: Tamil Bell

#86

Post by RajuVarghese »

manojlds wrote: post #33

As a Tamil, I am surprised by so many such things that I come across about our ancestors. No wonder we take a lot of pride in our culture, sometimes to the extreme.

You may be interested to know that the word 'Coromandel' is a anglicized corruption of the 'Chola mandalam'. The Cholas had a sea empire that stretched all the way up to Vietnam. You probably know that there are Hindu temples in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Wherever the Cholas landed they set up a temple with a local caretaker who later grew in power.

Re: Tamil Bell

#88

Post by matthewmcg »

RajuVarghese wrote: post #84
msound wrote: post #67

The Tamils originally wrote on dried palm leaves with a sharp scribe. So, if you didn't want to tear the leaf, you had to avoid straight lines and dots. That's why there are so many curves in the script. Also, one of the meanings of my first name "Mani" is literally "Bell". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script Also: I'm Tamil.

Malayalam, the language of Kerala, is similarly curvy. Same reason. I have several old palm leaf 'books' with Malayalam script.

And it is also a great palindrome!

Re: Tamil Bell

#89

Post by [deleted] »

RajuVarghese wrote: post #84
msound wrote: post #67

The Tamils originally wrote on dried palm leaves with a sharp scribe. So, if you didn't want to tear the leaf, you had to avoid straight lines and dots. That's why there are so many curves in the script. Also, one of the meanings of my first name "Mani" is literally "Bell". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script Also: I'm Tamil.

Malayalam, the language of Kerala, is similarly curvy. Same reason. I have several old palm leaf 'books' with Malayalam script.

[deleted]

Re: Tamil Bell

#90

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

simonh wrote: post #82
ianai wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's necessarily that crazy. There's a lot more to the world and human history than documented. Plus, for some reason, 'the west' tends to have an insular viewpoint. Oddball physics has fewer avenues of 'being true but unobserved'. I need sleep.

We have enough provable, documented examples of very long range contact and trade that it seems highly implausible that there was no such contact that we aren't aware of. If a Christian monk can be born near Beijing in 1220, walk all the way to Europe and meet the pope then it' beggars belief that similar journeys were never done in more ancient times. After all Marco Polo wasn't the first European to go to China eit…

Travelling over the medieval Silk Road though was much easier and safer than oceanic travel.
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