Tamil Vegetables

Elephant  Yam 

In Tamil it is called 'Karu Aanai Kizhangu' meaning 'Black Elephant Root Nodule' which over a period of time got deformed to 'karunai kizhangu'.  கருனை கிழன்கு [ யானை கால்  போலவே இருக்கும் 

green pepper  or  bell pepper  என்ற  குட மி ள காய் 

Cluster Bean

In Tamil it is called 'kuru avarai or kotthu avarai' for its growth in clusters.

Kuru got deformed to Goru in Telugu and therefore it is called 'goru chikkudu kai'

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Chikkudu kaya belong to bean family, in order to differentiate this bean from other bean varieties the word 'goru' was prefixed.  But why 'goru' that was the question?  

Well,  you will not get the appropriate answer if you dwell in Telugu alone, you will get it correctly when you look at it from Tamil perspective.   In Tamil we have two words that stand for a ‘bunch or a cluster’ they are 'kooru or kothu'    and ‘chikkudukaya’ in Tamil is called as 'avaraikai'.  In order to differentiate different varieties of beans Tamils called it as 'kooru avaraikai' or 'kothu avaraikai' (in modern days Tamil it got deformed to 'kothavarnagai').   The same word 'kooru' was adopted in Telugu too as a prefix to  'chikkadukai' thus it became 'kooru chikkudu' and over a period of time it got deformed from kooru to goru chikkudukai.   Hope you will find it interesting to note.

Coming to answering ‘Raavi Chettu’ or ‘Ragi Chettu’ (Ficus Religiosa).   Ragi or Raavi (prakruti and vikruthi form of the word) means copper in Telugu, but what has copper got to do with this plant.  Well once again you will get the answer if you take Tamil perspective.  Let me explain:

In olden times Kings used to announce notices to villages under a big tree (it is called ‘thandoora’ in Tamil and ‘dindoora’ in Hindi).    This big tree started being called as kings tree.  In Tamil King is refered as ‘aarasan’ and tree is called ‘maram’ therefore  King’s tree was called ‘arasanmaram’ in Tamil.  The same word when translated in Telugu becomes ‘Raju Chettu’.  This word Raju Chettu over a period of time was deformed to  ‘Raavi Chettu’.