An etymology

[Michael Witzel]

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NB: for all these words see RL Turner,  Comp. Dict. of the IA lang.s no.
8269, where he derives them from OIA *putrala , Pkt. puttali ...

Found from Kashmiri (~~~ potalu) to Sinhala (~~ petala)  (I cannot
reproduce the diacritics....)
So maybe not from Dravidian, but from  putra/putrii 'son/daughter' etc. in Skt.
Turner  also compares semantic development of Ved. kaniinakaa 'little one'
> pupil in the eye,  puppet'

Best wishes, MW>


>>
>>In Panjabi, putlii (long i), means both 'puppet' and
>>'pupil of the eye'.
>>
>>Elena Bashir, SALC
>>The University of Chicago
>
>In Hindi too!
>
>Ghanshyam Sharma
>University  of Venice

========================================================
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
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