Relatives

Now lets get to more 'complicated' relatives! The words to describe these relatives is so relation specific that I doubt any other language has such descriptive words to describe relations!
The earlier blog was words for relations as we would call them. These words are used more to refer to them and not used to call them. For instance one would call a paternal uncle 'Kaka' but would refer to him as 'Chultha'. One would call a cousin by name but would refer to him as 'chulath bhau' or ' maavas bhau'

Chultha चुल्था ... Paternal Uncle (kaka)

Chulthi चुल्थी ... Kaki or paternal uncle's wife

Chulath bhau चुलत भाऊ ... refers to a Cousin who is the Chultha or paternal uncle's son

Chulath Bahin चुलत बहिन ... refers to a Cousin who is the Chultha or paternal uncle's daughter

Maavas Bhau मावस भाऊ ... refers to a cousin who is the Maushi or maternal aunt's son

Maavas Bahin मावस बहिन ... refers to a cousin who is the Maushi or maternal aunt's daughter

Chulathe sasra चुलत सासरा ... father-in-law's brother

Chulath Saasu चुलत सासू... husband's kaki or father-in-law's brother's wife

Saavatr सावत्र .. refers to 'Step' This is used as a prefix to describe all step relations ships

Saavatr Maai सावत्र माई .. is step mother



Similarly Saavatr baap, saavtr bhau, saavtr bahin, saavatr kaka and so on.

Sakka सक्का ... one's own ( not step relative)

Bhauja भौज ... brother's wife

Nanand ननंद ... husband's younger sister

Vahinak वहिनक ... husband's older sister

Daer देर ... husband's younger brother

Saadu.... is a co-brother

Vyaahin व्याहीं ... one's daughter's or son's father

Vihinn विहिन्न ... one's daughter's or son's mother

Sasra साश्रा ...father-in-law

saasu सासू ... mother-in-law

Kaak Saasu काक्सासू ... Father-in-law's brother's wife

Kaaksasra काक्सासरा ...Father-in-law's brother.

Mevanna मेवांना ...Wife's brother

Mhevani  म्हेवणी ..Wife's sister

 Would welcome more additions to this.....

RELATIONS

We have a lot of kannada speaking relatives, also deshasthas(!) and I do enjoy asking them if they can describe relatives as aptly as we can do in our Thanjavur marathi! In fact, the very word tells all about how the person is related, there is no need of any description!
Perhaps, we inherited these words also from our ancestors from Maharashtra and preserved and continued to use them!

Here are a few of them....

Bappa / बप्पा ..... Father

Amma/ Aayi अम्मा / आई... Mother

Aayi Bappa आई बप्पा... Mother Father

Bahin बहिन ... sister

Bhau भाऊ ... brother

Kaka काका ... father's brother/ Paternal Uncle

Vadil वडिल .. .. refers to father's older brother, also refers to father

Maushi मौषी ... Maternal Aunt/ mother's sister

Atya अत्या ... Paternal aunt/ father's sister

Mama मामा ... Maternal Uncle/ Mother's brother

mami मामी ... mama's wife
Vahini वहिनी.... Sister-in-law

Bhaoji भओजी .... older brother-in-law...that is, elder sister's husband or husband's older brother






These are the simple straightforward relations. Directly related to a parent.

LETTERS

Letters and mail have become obsolete in today's world of internet and text messages.
However, I do remember a time when we were in Delhi and my grandmother was in Madras (now Chennai) and my mom used to ask me to write letters to her in marathi. I used the Devanagari script and the letter used to read as follows....

आजी ला शुब्हा कर्याचा अनेक नमस्कार ।
तुम्ही कसा आहेंथ ? इथे आम्ही बर आहें ।
लेन्क्र अस्गे बर आहेत । तुम्चा आंग अथ कसा आहें ?
- - - - - - - - body of letter ------------------

नमस्कार
तुम्चा
शुब्हा


English Version:
aaji la shubha karyacha anek namaskar ।
tumhi kasa aahenth ? ithe amhi bara aahen ।
lenkra asge bar aaheth । tumcha aang atha kasa aahen ?
- - - - - - - - body of letter ------------------

namaskar
tumcha
shubha

As can be seen, the letter used to begin with a namaskar and end with a namaskar and signed off as 'yours'. Interesting, especially since the format was derived from the letter my grandmother used to write to my mother!

Little Baby Rhymes

There are quite a few nursery rhymes preserved among Tanjore maharashtrians.
All nursery rhymes are targeted at a particular child's growing up stages.
For instance, the first rhyme here helps a baby discover his hands and head.

This rhyme is recited with the baby's right forefinger repeatedly clapping on the palm of the left hand until the last line when the baby's hands are taken to be placed on his head(dokya means head)
काउ काउ इथे ब्यैस
चिम चिम इथे ब्यैस
दाना खा पानी पी
डोके वर ब्यैस ब्यैस
KAU KAU ITHE BAIS
CHEEM CHEEM ITHE BAIS
DAANA KHA PAANI PI
DOKE VAR BAIS BAIS

The above TMD rhyme seems to have derived from the Standard Marathi rhyme.....

इथे इथे बस रे काउ
बाळ घलाताय जेउ
खाऊ खा पाणी पी
आणि भुर्र कन उडून जा


A baby loves to be rocked seated securely on a mother's aunt's or grandmom 's lap!. This rhyme is recited by gently rocking the baby seated on the lap.
झूला हथी झूला रे
हथी सूंडा फूल रे
देवकी च मूला रे
हथी कशा झूलता
रामा कशा बोलतो
(बेबी) कशा हस्तो
हा! हा! हा!

JHOOLA HATTHI JHOOLA RE
HATHI SOONDA PHOOLA RE
DEVAKICHA MOOLA RE
HATHI KASHA JHOOLATHA
RAAMA KASHA BOLOTHO
...... KASHA HASTO
HA!HA!HA!


There is no security for a baby than being sung to sleep. The next is a lullaby ....

जो जो जो मनमोहना
निज-रे-ना-रायना
नंदा-च-नंदना
निज-रे-ना-रायना

JO JO MANMOHANA (sleep Manamohana ie Krishna)
NIJE RE NARAYANA (lay down Narayana ie Krishna)
NANDA CHA NANDANA(Nanda’s Nandana ie Krishna)
NIJE RE NARAYANA

If any of you know more of these, please enlighten us.

Toddler Nursery Rhymes

Toddler nursery rhymes preserved among the Tanjore Marathis were some of them action songs where the child could understand and some action of holding hands, clapping etc. would be done.

 This nursery rhyme would be sung having the little toddler clap his hands 

Thaale Bai Thaale

Amma karti Pole

Polela nahi thoop

Baalala lagla bhook bhook bhook

 

Here's another one with the hands,

  लावा लावा संकलि 

मामा आला

  खोबरा-च वाटी (और सोना-च वाटी ) आणून देला

  मामी आली 

हिरिन्गु गेली 

  Lava Lava Sankli 

Mama aala (Mama came) 

Khobra-cha vaati (or Sona-cha vaati ) (coconut cup or golden cup) 

aanun dela (brought and gave)

  Mami aali (Mami came)

  Hiringu geli ( snatched it and went away! ) 

 (Why they implicated poor mami in this rhyme beats me!)  

This next rhyme was to help a toddler get interested in eating and yet make him laugh so that even a poor eater would be tricked into eating and look forward to the fun while eating. 

The toddler's palm would be opened and holding the palm, and imagining it is a banana leaf actions like serving food on it would be done with finally tickling the palm. 

 मोठा पान मानठुना  

कोशाम्बरी घालून 

भाजी घालून 

 भात घालून

 तूप घालून 

वरण घालून 

बेश कालीवुना  

पाळ करुना 

थ्यजान्था कड़ी घालून  

कड़ी च पाल फुटला, फुटला, फुटला 

  Motha paan maanduna 

koshambari ghaluna 

 bhaji ghaluna 

 Bhaat galuna ( while holding my palm up as a plate and using her hand to mash the imaginary cooked rice). 

  Thoop galuna

  daal galuna 

Baesh kalivuna 

Paal karuna 

Thejantha kadi galuna 

  Kadicha paal phutla, phutla, phutla ( and tickling my hand).

 

Here is another one... This one was for a toddler to find his hand and at the same time to make him realise the way to reach God! The song says "I gave flowers to God " and ends with "What did God give you? My Hand!" 

 A child’s hand would be held to his back and.. 

 ” हाथ कोटा गेले 

किवाड़ माघ गेले

  किवाड़ काई दीला 

 किवाड़ कुप्पा दीला 

 कुप्पा काई कर्लीसा

  झाडाला घटले  

झाड काई दीला 

 झाड फुला दीला 

 फुला काई कर्लीसा  

देवाला घातले 

देव काई दीला

  हाथ दीला हाथ दीला हाथ दीला”

and the hand is brought forward victoriously in jubiliation!

” Haath kota gele (Where did your hand go?)

 kivaad maagha gele (Went behind the door)

 kivaad kai deela (What did the door give you?) 

kivaad kuppa deela (The door gave dust and dirt)

 kuppa kai karleesa (What did you do with the dirt?)

 jhaadala ghatle (Put it for the tree/plant) 

jhaad kai deela (What did the plant give you) 

jhaad phula deela (Tree/plant gave me flowers) 

phula kai karleesa (What did you do with the flowers)

devala ghatle (Put it for God)

 dev kai deela (What did God give you?) 

haath deela haath deela haath deela” (Gave my hand back!) 

Tanjore Marathis

Hello,

Our community of Tanjore or Thanjavur Marathis , also called Deshasthas, Madhwa Deshasthas or Smartha Deshasthas are a small diverse group.

We all speak Marathi and yet would not dare to speak in front of a maharashtrian or a Konkani! We can understand their language fully, yet they cannot understand ours!

Many of us shy away from declaring we are marathi speaking in front of a typical marathi speaking
group! Many of us also go about thinking we speak a "Koli Marathi" and are ashamed of our language.

All of us have experienced this typical question-answer scenario...

Question:" So where do you come from?" or " Which place do you belong to?"
Answer: " From Tamil Nadu" or "We belong to Bangalore"
Question: (asked with some amount of confusion) " How come you speak Marathi!?"

Now we really cannot go into Shivaji's step-brother's history, can we? So we murmur something
and rarely is the questioner interested enough to question us further and we thank our stars!

Our confusion about describing ourselves does not stop here! Then we have Marathis married to Kannada speaking people, who also call themselves Deshasthas! Where do these belong? Further we have Madhwa Deshasthas and Smartha Deshasthas! Phew! Not to forget the mutts we belong to!

Well! my blog here is to educate ourselves on where we come from carrying and shouldering a history of 500 years untarnished and make us feel proud about ourselves.

This is a first step to Belonging and Association!