Ancient Egypt and Kerala shared many similarities, some of which manifested in cultural practices, such as dress and property laws, and other similarities manifested in names of things and places. Some similarities are straightforward, but others not quite so. One such of the latter variety is hidden in the Malayalam word for natron, a type of salt. Natron is called tuvar തുവര് in Malayalam, with variations tuvar kaaram തുവര്ക്കാരം and tuvar uppu തുവര് ഉപ്പു both of which mean “natron salt.”¹ Chemically, it is a natural mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na2CO3·10 H2O, a kind of soda ash) and about 17% sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) along with small amounts of sodium chloride (aka table salt) and sodium sulfate.²
The English word natron is allegedly a French cognate that came from the Spanish natrón through Greek νιτρων nitron, which derived from ancient Egyptian netcheri, meaning natron.³ Ancient Egyptian had many other words for natron: besen,⁴ bed,⁵ hesmen,⁶ heter,⁷ sevetip,⁸ semin,⁹ kala-vetip,¹⁰ and der-qed.¹¹ None of these Egyptian words match with Malayalam tuvar, so where is the similarity? To answer that, we need to take a deep dive into the ancient Egyptians’ concept of purity.
Purity was intimately attached to temple rituals in ancient Egypt.¹² Indeed, it was a condition for access to the temple. The Egyptian temple, much like Kerala temples, had zones of different levels of purity, the sanctum being the purest and accessible only to the high priest. The temple compound housed other rooms, notably a “house of worship,” called per-dever, corresponding to Malayalam tevarappura തേവാരപ്പുര “house of worship,” where the chief priest purified himself before entering the temple, just as in Kerala.¹³
Purification rituals involved pouring of water and fumigation with incense, alongside purification using natron.¹⁴ Part of the Egyptian purification ritual of the priest included drinking natron water, or chewing balls of natron.¹⁵ The natron had divine symbolism: it was considered to have been chewed and spat out by the gods Horus and Seth, and when the priest himself had chewed it, his mouth became “like the mouth of a calf the day it was born,” and thus purified to utter divine incantations.¹⁶ Priests had to drink natron water for at least ten days before they were allowed to worship in the temple.¹⁷ Thus, natron was closely tied to the Egyptian word dever, which had the multiple meanings of “worship,” and “morning.”¹⁸ dever became Malayalam tevaram തേവാരം “worship” in a straightforward manner, and tuvar തുവര് “natron” through a slightly more circuitous route, namely the association of natron with purity rituals.
Today, like the ancient Egyptian priests, the entire modern world uses natron for purification, albeit in a more sophisticated form: soap!
Notes
[1] Herman Gundert, 1872, Malayalam and English Dictionary (Mangalore: C. Stolz).
[2] Soda ash is used in modern times to make soap, washing powders, detergents, and in the manufacture of glass and other materials.
[3] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natron. See also 𓊺, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/90510.
[4] 𓃀𓊃𓈖𓈓, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/57460.
[5] 𓃀𓂧𓊺𓈓, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/58400. This word likely evolved into Malayalam podi പൊടി “powder.”
[6] 𓎛𓊃𓏠𓈖𓈓, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/110020.
[7] https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/111890.
[8] Literally, “make pure.” 𓋴𓃂𓈗, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/130020.
[9] https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/134960.
[10] Literally “pure bull.” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/163090.
[11] 𓏏𓂋𓂡𓐪𓏏𓈓, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/180210.
[12] The modern Malayalee may be no less cognizant of this concept — bathe before entering a temple; do not touch the priest or anything divine; do not defile the temple grounds with spit or blood; and so on.
[13] 𓉐𓏤𓂧𓍯𓇼𓏏𓉐, https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/60890. Currently accepted pronunciation for this word is per-duat. However, the pronunciation of the star hieroglyph is associated with the pronunciation of the vulture hieroglyph which had a pronunciation in old Egyptian of [r] instead of [a]. See Alan Gardiner, 1927, Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. 3rd ed., 487 (Oxford: Griffith Institute). The hieroglyph occurs in other words “adore,” “to rise early and worship” corresponding to Malayalam tevaram തേവാരം “worship,” “morning ablutions of the priest.” Aylward Blackman, 1918, “The House of Morning,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 5: 148–165. tevarappura is the Malayalam word for a room to conduct worship and also another room for purity washing. See Hermann Gundert, 1872, A Malayalam and English Dictionary, 486 (Mangalore: C. Stolz); Edgar Thurston, 1909, Castes and Tribes of Southern India. 7 volumes (Madras: Government Press).
[14] Joachim Friedrich Quack, 2013, “Conceptions of Purity in Egyptian Religion.” In Purity and the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean World and ancient Judaism, 115–158 (Leiden: Brill).
[15] See Blackman, 156. Indeed, this solution, or the balls, may have been called dever in ancient Egyptian. https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/866981.
[16] See Blackman, 157.
[17] See Quack, 122.
[18] 𓇼𓏏𓀢, “worship,” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/177960; 𓇼𓄿𓅱𓇳 “morning” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/178000.
