Friday, January 20, 2012

How panda might have got its name पांडा का नामकरण कैसे हुआ होगा




We went to Africa and Antarctica to find out how donkey, giraffe and penguin got their names. Today we move to the jungles of South China, the only place in the world where panda is found. Our ancestors seem to be great naturalists. Without the Google and the Wikipedia, they seem to know a great deal about panda. The most unique thing about panda is its food habit. Panda’s food is 99% bamboo leaves and stems. No other animal would dare to eat sharp bamboo shoots. Scientists have found out that muscles in mouth and throat of panda are specially adapted to withstand sharp bamboos stems. Our ancestors named panda after the food that it eats. Bamboo is known as VANSHA (वंश) in Sanskrit. So panda was named VANSHAA (वंशा). The journey from VANSHA to panda the journey has been very simple:  
VANSHA (Sanskrit), = bamboo
BANSA (Hindi) =bamboo
PANSA (PANAS, Skt.= spiny object, perhaps origin of pin)
PANJA > PANYA>PONYA (nepali)
PANDA (Tibetan)
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Etymonline, has this to say:


Word Origin & History

panda
1835, from Fr., apparently from Nepalese name of a raccoon-like mammal (lesser panda) found there. First reference to the Giant Panda is from 1901; since its discovers in 1869 by Fr. missionary Armand David (1826-1900) it had been known as parti-colored bear, but the name was changed after the zoological relationship to the red panda was established.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Thanks Aniket. While the giant panda's diet is 99% bamboo, the diet of the red panda is about two-thirds bamboo and one third a eggs, mushrooms, birds, small mammals and insect.
      I agree with your comments about the coining of a word that would mean 'related to VANSH. Accordingly, the word for Panda could have been VAMSHEYA. While VANSH/VAMSH are the words in formal scholarly Sanskrit, the original word for PANDA could also have been derived from a spoken dialect or slang, e.g.the words BANJA बांज or BANS बाँस. A Sanskrit word piNDaveNu (पिण्डवेणु) means a species of bamboo. Panda could also be based on 'pindvenu'. However, the fact is that despite consistent attempts by the Pundits of ancient India to preserve the scientific character of the language and its mathematical precision, the language itself flew like a mighty river breaking all boundaries of Paninian grammarians. Even today, when we call the Australian cricket team as the 'kangaroos',we don't use a word that would mean 'from the land of the kangaroos'. Hence both VAMSHEYA and VANSHA/VANSHA should be OK. The basic idea is that Panda was names after the plant that it eats, that is bamboo (VANSH वंश)

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    3. Very good example to show that even the so called perfect Sanskrit doesn't follow all the rules all the time. If it were to follow the rules rigidly, its daughter languages would not have evolved.

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  2. pan= leaves and da from danda = bamboo stem so Panda...........a wild guess

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  3. My my , it is that simple! I never thought of it

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  4. Hello, I would like to know. Why in the title, the word panda is translated : पांडा whereas in the explanation it is said that panda is VANSHAA : वंशा ?
    To translate "panda panda", would it be वंशावंशा or पांडापांडा ?

    Thank you for all your articles and explanations

    Angele

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    1. Dear Angele
      Panda is known by the same word in English and Hindi; hence the use of word पांडा in the Hindi translation of the title. VANSHAA वंशा is not a word for panda in any language. I have used the word VANSHAA वंशा as an imaginary original word that might have been used by the first human beings who saw panda. I have imagined that our ancestors must have observed this animal's inseparable association with the bamboo plants and named it after the Sanskrit word VANSHA for bamboo. This series is an exercise in imagining the feelings of our pre-historic ancestors while they were coining words to describe plants, animals and things around them; and the path by which the putative original words changed into modern words.
      Thanks for your interest. Welcome to the walks with ancestors in search of DNA of Words.

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  5. language .................

    Yes .......... very true .................
    ... despite consistent attempts by the Pundits of ancient India to preserve the scientific character of the language and its mathematical precision, the language itself flew like a mighty river breaking all boundaries of Paninian grammarians. ............

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    1. Exactly. There is saying "भाषा बहता नीर" i.e. language is like a river.

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