Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 257

GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL INDIA.
BY NUNDOLAL DEY, M.A., B.L.
Preface to the Second Edition.
IN the present edition, considerable additions have been made to the names and accounts of places in the light of later researches, and blemishes of the previous edition removed as far as possible. The arrangement of names of places has been made strictly alphabetical in view of its greater convenience for reference, and authorities supplied for statements that were in want of such support.
The materials for the work have been, I need hardly add, compiled from a variety of sources-Sanskrit, Pali, etc., including, of course, works of many European writers interested in Indian antiquities.
Ancient Geography is an essential adjunct to history, and the usefulness of a compendium of such geographical information for a full and just appreciation of the latter hardly needs any mention, specially when time has mutilated or obscured the ancient names of places that usually figure in the historical narratives. Indian history, ancient or medieval, and the documents upon which it is principally based, are full of these names; and unless they are elucidated in a systematic way as far as possible, the path of the historian and, for the matter of that, of the ordinary readers of history, will continue uneasy for this difficulty alone.
A study of the words in this Dictionary will show that time has mutilated many original names almost out of recognition. The restoration of the altered derivatives to their genuine originals is not, however, an impossibility in view of the fact that most of the changes are found not to have taken place haphazardly. Barring names displaced by new ones by some cause or other, they appear in most cases to be governed by the rules of Prakrit grammars, except where the peculiar brogue of a particular place has checked or modified the application of the rules. I give below some of the principal rules illustrating them by words from the toponomy of this Dictionary :
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AFFIXES.
Adri is changed into ar, as Gopâdri, Goaliar (Gwaliar); Charanâdri, Chunar. Bhukta is changed into hut, as Tirabhukta, Tirhut.
Bhukti is changed in to huti, as Jejâkabhukti, Jejahuti.
Dhatugarbha is changed into
(a) Dhapa, as Sila-dhatagarbha, 'Sila-dhipa.
(6) Dipa, as Sila-dhips, Sila-dipa.
(c) Dia, as Vetha-dhátugarbha (-Vethadhapa Vothadipa), Betha-diá. (d) 18 Bethia.
Dvipa (pronounced Dipa) is changed into
(1) dia, as Navadvipa, Nadiâ. (2) wa, as Kaṭadvipa, Kâtwa. Girl is changed into
(a) ger, as Mudgagiri, Munger."
(b) gu, as Kolagiri, Kodagu (Koorg).