Sambhar (southern Indian) and sambol (Sri Lanka, Malay): are these really connected? What about chammandi (Malayalam)? Does sambal simply mean sauce? Interesting, isn’t it, that sambal finds itself in South Africa? What does sambal have to do with thuvaiyal (Tamil)?
Presumably the ethnic group, the Sambals or Zambales in the Philipines, have nothing to do with the food.
Sambal is NOT sambhar, whatever anyone might think or say, and even if you can use sambhar podi in making sambal.
And then there is pachadi (southern Indian) and, for instance, pacheri terong etc (Malay).