Know the Etymology: 338
Place Name of the Day: Friday, 11 April 2014

Edanduwawa

ஏத₃ண்டு₃வாவ
Ēdaṇḍuvāva

Ea+danduwaawa

The log or plank bridge

Eada'nda

(singular), Eada'ndu (plural), also, Eadanda/ Eadandu: Plank, log or beam laid across a river or brook to pass over as a bridge (Sinhala); Da'nda: Stick, staff, club, stem of a tree (Sinhala); Da'ndu: Wood, timber (Sinhala); Da'nda: Stick, club, stalk, stem (Sanskrit, CDIAL, 6128, probably Non-Aryan, says CDIAL); Tha'ndu: Stalk, stem (Tamil, DED 3056); Ta'ndaka: Trunk of a tree (Sanskrit, only in lexicons, CDIAL 5527); Thadi: Stick, staff, a piece as of wood (Tamil, DED 3030); Ea: A changed form of Se, He, Heya, Seya, Hetu, Setu: Bridge, causeway in a field (Sinhala); from Setu: Dam, bridge, boundary (Sanskrit, CDIAL 13585); Causeway, bridge (Pali, CDIAL 13585); Seu: Dam, bridge (Prakrit, CDIAL 13585); Chear: To join, reach, Tamil, DED 2814)

Eada'nda in Sinhala means a plank, log or beam laid across a river or brook to pass over as a bridge. The plural or combination form of the word is Eada'ndu. The words are also often written as Eadanda and Eadandu.

Eada'nda is a combination of two words, Ea and Da'nda.

Da'nda in this context means wood or stem of a tree and the word is a cognate of Da'nda in Sanskrit meaning a stem (CDIAL 6128), Ta'ndaka in Sanskrit meaning a trunk of a tree (CDIAL 5527) and Tha'ndu in Tamil meaning a stalk or stem (DED 3056).

CDIAL notes that the etymology of Da'nda is probably non-Aryan and traces the etymology of Ta'ndaka and other Indo-Aryan forms of the word to Dravidian and Munda influences.

The prefix Ea in Eada'nda seems to be a changed form of the Sinhala words He and Se that are in turn shortened forms of Heya, Hetu and Setu, meaning a bridge. All of them are cognates of Setu in Sanskrit and in other South Asian languages meaning a bridge or causeway. The root Che in Dravidian, as in the Tamil verb Chear, means to join or to reach (DED 2814).

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Eadanduwaawa comes as a place name in Yatinuwara division of Kandy district and in Mawanella division of Kegalle district

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Some related place names:

Gal-eada'nda: The stone beam bridge; Biyagama division, Gampaha district; Welimada division, Badulla district

Gal-eadandu-goda: The bank having a stone beam bridge; Horana division, Kalutara district

Mahaa-eada'nda: The big bridge of logs placed across (differentiating it from another smaller one); Karandeniya division, Galle district

Eadandu-kitha: The (place where there is a) rope bridge or a log-rope bridge; Pitabeddara division, Matara district

First published: Sunday, 20 April 2014, 07:09