Bantu, Bant′ II

Manjunath and I disagreed on the bantu > bant′ derivation. I wrote an explanation to him in the comment box, but due to a phone call, I was unable to save it in time on the blog. Instead of rewriting the entire response, I decided to post an additional explanation on the subject.

Bant′ (Tulu), banta (Kannada), and bantu (Telugu) all mean the same thing: a trustworthy assistant and/or bodyguard. The Telugu meaning of Bantu, which is a suicide squad, is simply an extension of the basic meaning. Bantu used to refer to a professional bodyguard who could be counted on. This profession may have been practised by some Bantu people who migrated from their original homeland due to poor living conditions. As a result, the term Bantu came to refer to any trustworthy bodyguard. As a result, the term Bantu came to denote a profession. (This is similar to our practise of referring to any Jeep-like rugged field vehicle as a Jeep, despite the fact that Jeep is a specific brand name and not a type of vehicle.)

Manjunath believes that the Tulu/Kannada word banta was derived from the Sanskrit term bhata via Prakrit. Since elementary school, we have implicitly assumed that many of our words, the tatbhavas, are derived from Sanskrit. However, my deductions suggest that Prakrit was one of the languages spoken by the people of Pirak during the early Vedic period, around 1700 BC. Prak and Prakrit appear to be derived from the place name Pirak (cf. my posting 3.Pirak). Pirak was a multicultural, polylingual society that coexisted with proto-Tulu, proto-Dravida, and early Vedic societies. Sanskrit means “refined and cultured language,” and it evolved from the pre-existing prakrit and related languages.

As a result, the Sanskrit word bhata could be derived from the word bantu/bant. The Sanskrit bhata means soldier or guard, with no connotation of the dependability or bodyguard tags implied in the aforementioned South Indian languages.

The presence of various African tribes in India is not a recent discovery. Siddi tribes of African origin in Karnataka’s Western Ghats may be relatively new additions to our diversity. Population genetics, according to Manjunath, do not support any African genetic affinity for south Indian groups. I’m not sure if any in-depth genetic studies have been conducted in India. However, a recent heterozygozygosity study admitted that they were unable to obtain sufficient Indian samples.

The Nadava are said to have been mentioned for the first time in Tulunad in a 13th century inscription. Tulunad was under the suzerainty of the Vijayanagar kingdom at the time. To distinguish themselves from the soldiers brought with them from Vijayanagar mainland, Vijayanagar administrators may have referred to the local cultivating community as nadava. Currently, the Nadava are a Kannada-speaking community found throughout Uttara Kannada. According to Nadava sources, five Nadava families migrated from Kundapur area and settled around Ankola and Gokarna in Uttara Kannada district about five centuries ago. This is most likely an example of the number of populations/tribes that migrated throughout history.

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