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Tamil meaning of "kOdai"

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mani Varadarajan • July 24, 1998 


I was browsing the archives and came upon an
article written last year by Sri T.S. Sundararajan:

   'kOdai' and 'gOdA'
   ------------------
   
   'kOdai' was the first name periyAzhvAr gave to ANDAL.
   This Tamil word stands for 'a string of flowers'. In 
   the golden quadrangle of tirukkuRunkuDi, vAnamAmalai, 
   AzhvAr-tirunagari and SrIvilliputtUr, girl-children 
   were commonly named 'mAlA-nAcchiyAr'.   When the Tamil 
   name was Sanskritised as 'gOdA', it yielded a rainbow 
   of meanings.   In Sanskrit, the root 'gAuh' means, 
   inter alia, the 'vEdam';  hence, 'gOdA' signifies one 
   who gives of the 'vEdam'.

The full text of the article is:

http://thondar.busi.utc.edu/bhakti/archives/aug97/0002.html

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Mani