Monday 21 October 2019

Deepavali Vs Divali : Know the Difference


An annual vocabulary dispute inevitably surfaces with the celebrative 'festival of lights'


Root sounds

The term comes from samskṛta : dīpa and āvali  .The former denotes 'light' while the latter refers to a continuous line. Hence, dīpāvali means ' a row of lights '


Its meaning can be expanded and perceived in many ways. Today, many see it as a representation of light over darkness - a sign of illumination.

What about Diwali then ? 

Divāli is simply a phonetically adapted form of dīpāvali used in the North. But let us not demonise its usage. A lot of other samskṛta words are heavily corrupted and used in other languages as well. So it is not fair for the yester-year embryo-turned keyboard warriors to bash those who wish divāli instead of dīpāvali. 

This phenomenon is referred to as the phonetic adaptation. This occurs when a word from one language is adopted into another language and undergoes changes in pronunciation to better fit the phonological rules of the adopting language.

When you can carelessly convert 'ṣaṇmukha' ( pronounced shhaNmukha ) to 'sanmuga' or 'hospital' to 'hāspitri' and add suffixes ( i.e śiva --> śivan , Vināyaka ---> Vināyagar ) to phonetically adapt those words, you have no rights to bash a community which prefers to use divāli over dīpāvali.

Stop inducing jealousy in the hearts of the Britain Royal Circus' clowns with your 'culture' policing on social media.


The image above is being virally shared. ( the irony is the spelling for the greeting itself is incorrect. It should be வாழ்த்துகள் not வாழ்த்துக்கள் ). 

The frogs which live under their shell think that 'Dīpāvali' is an exclusive Tamiḻ word. There is no Tamiḻ or Telugu way to pronounce a word. A word is pronounced as how it is done in its originality. Dīpāvali is samskṛta, not Tamiḻ.

Pronouncing car as caar-u does not make 'car' a Tamiḻ word. Get it ?

'Dīpāvali' as a word is used by Telugu-s, Malayālī-s, Koṃkaṇī-s and other ethnicities of the nation - not just Tamiḻ-s.


Forget about terminology, most barely know the scriptural relevance of Dīpāvali.


As such, stop pretending to be Kṛṣṇa's sidekick who destroyed Narakāsura to have a special emotional surge should someone use Divāli instead of Dīpāvali.

Stay calm and enjoy the Maruku, I mean muṟukku-s.

Wishing all an advanced Happy Dīpāvali.








1 comment:

  1. Genius,handsome,practical. Btw I use diwali because its shorter and easier to say than compared to deepavali.I lost a friend because of that once lol Hope he reads your article.

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