My most illustrious and venerable older sister has given me greater insight into that magical-looking musical instrument, the Kombuwa. The term Kombuwa, originally a Tamil word, also stands for the non-initial letter 'E' in the Sinhala script.
Kombuwa, the Sinhala non-initial 'E'My copy of Jayalalitha Swami's Tamil-English dictionary advises me that a kombu is the horn of an animal, a wind instrument, a branch of a tree, a shoot of ginger, an elephant's tusk, a pole of a palankeen, a symbol for the vowel 'e', or an opening in the side of a tank through which the water flows in or out.
The pro-Separatist website Tamilnet tells me (in relation to the place name Kompansaintakulam) that Kompu is in Tamil, a branch, a horn of an animal, a musical horn, a tusk; and in Malayalam, a Horn, a tusk, a musical horn, a branch, a pole, a mast, a spear. (P and B are both represented by a single letter in Tamil, hence the two different spellings).
Tamilnet also tells me that the Sinhala kombuwa is a musical instrument shaped like a French horn. However, neither the modern Sinhalese instrument nor the Tamil one look like a French horn. Another website gives more pictures of a Sinhalese kombuwa, for comparison.
The Malayalam (Keralite) one, on the other hand, does look more like a French horn. It also resembles the Sinhala non-initial 'e' letter.
The Tamil letter for the non-initial 'e' looks like this (and the Malayali is similar):The Malayalam (Keralite) one, on the other hand, does look more like a French horn. It also resembles the Sinhala non-initial 'e' letter.
The non-initial 'e' letter in TamilSinhala, Tamil and Malayali are all written in scripts derived from Brahmi. The earliest known examples of the script are on potsherds, dating from the 6th century BC, found at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and at Kodumanal in South India.
Hence it is likely that the terms for the letter all originated from a word which meant either 'branch' or 'horn' in a Dravidian or pre-dravidian tongue.
The tusks of an elephant looked like this to a 17th century English illustrator (please try and ignore the man being crushed by the elephant):
Hence it is likely that the terms for the letter all originated from a word which meant either 'branch' or 'horn' in a Dravidian or pre-dravidian tongue.
The tusks of an elephant looked like this to a 17th century English illustrator (please try and ignore the man being crushed by the elephant):
Elephant in Knox's Historical RelationThis is a fairly accurate representation, and it bears a strong resemblance to the South-east Indian kompu.
The Sinhalese kombuwa looks more like a French horn which has been untwisted and made straight in a less-than-perfect manner:
Mahanaga school bandleader with a kombuwa
The Sinhalese kombuwa looks more like a French horn which has been untwisted and made straight in a less-than-perfect manner:
Mahanaga school bandleader with a kombuwa
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