Śarkarā (शर्करा)

[Radhakrishna Warrier]

I like preparations that use jaggery or sugar, so let us discuss this sweet topic today. 😊.

I believe the oldest word for sugar is the Sanskrit Śarkarā (शर्करा) probably because of the similarity of candied or crystalline sugar to gravel.

The word for either jaggery or sugar is derived from Sanskrit Śarkarā in most of the modern Indian languages.

In Malayalam, Śarkara is jaggery.  Sugar is Pañcasāra.  Less commonly, sugarcane jaggery and Palm jaggery are called by a tadbhava word cakkara.  Cakkara is more used as a term of endearment equivalent to English “Sweetie”.

For sugar, Tamil has carkkarai, Kannada has Sakkare and Telugu cakkera (also pañcadāra) all tadbhavas of the Sanskrit Śarkarā.  But the word for jaggery in these languages are Vellam, Bella and Bellam respectively. (Besides Śarkara, Malayalam uses Vellam too for jaggery.)

In Hindi sugar is Śakkar (tadbhava of Śarkarā) and jaggery is Guḍ (गुड़).

In Gujarati sugar is Khāṇḍ (ખાંડ) and jaggery is Goļ (ગોળ)

In Punjabi, sugar is Khaṇḍ (ਖੰਡ) and jaggery is Guḍ (ਗੁਡ਼)

Wonder from where the Guḍ (गुड़)/ Goļ (ગોળ) and khaṇḍ/khāṇḍ came. So also, the source of Vellam/Bella/Bellam.  And where did Malayalam Pañcasāra / Telugu Pañcadāra come from?

Regards,

Radhakrishna Warrier

[Shashi Joshi]

In Hindi, there are three words:

chini - refined white sugar

shakkar - small yellow balls of sugar cane sugar almost looking like small ball bearings.

guD = the lump of sugar cane extract before refining too much.

guDaH is Sanskrit for molasses, from which the guD of tadbhava are coming

khANDa is also used in Hindi as well. comes from Sanskrit khaNDa, khaNDaka

khANDavaH is sugar candy, also name of the forest.

Apte lists bahala as a kind of sugarcane. That 'may' be for Bella/Vellam

Thanks,

~ Shashi

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[उ॒ज्ज्व॒लः]

म॒धु॒रः सं॑वा॒दः!

 

I believe the oldest word for sugar is the Sanskrit Śarkarā (शर्करा) probably because of the similarity of candied or crystalline sugar to gravel.

Sugar

From Middle English sugre, sucre, from Middle French sucre, from Old French çucre (circa 13th century), from Medieval Latin zuccarum, from Old Italian zúccharo, from Arabic سُكَّر‎ (sukkar), from Persian شکر‎ (šakar), from Middle Persian (škl), 𐫢𐫞𐫡‎ (šqr /šakar/), from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā, “ground or candied sugar", originally "grit, gravel”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“gravel, boulder”), akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”). Doublet of jaggery.

Jaggery

From Indo-Portuguese jágara, jagra, from Kannada ಶರ್ಕರೆ (śarkare) or Hindi शक्कर (śakkar)/Urdu شکر‎ (śakkar), from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā). Doublet of sugar.