Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 223

OCTOBER, 1931 ]
PLACE NAMES
195
and which to the ear of many have no more significance than if they were Hebrew or Coptic."
These remarks are more forcibly applicable to India, where names owe their origin to more than 500 languages and dialects. Yet while Great Britain has taken up the thread again, India remains where it was, in spite of attention having been drawn to the desideratum. "The composite structure of our English speech," wrote Professor Blackie," in fact tends to conceal from us the natural organism of language." One may well ask how much the babel of India conceals from the Indian people. Even in a single province like the Central Provinces about 150 languages and dialects are spoken, some of them by what may be termed autochthones, differing widely from the speech of the Aryan immigrants, who settled in the province in comparatively late times. In these circumstances, conjecture in the realm of etymology is simply unavoidable, but if it is pursued patiently, accepting only what is solid and eliminating what is problematical, one need not be afraid of treading over ground that may not be wholly terra firma.
During the times of Sri Ramacandra, a great portion of the present Central Provinces was Dandakâranya or Dandaka forest, whence Sita, wife of Rama, was abducted by Ravana, king of Lanka, which has been usually identified with the modern Ceylon, but since about & decade this identification has been questioned and a theory started that Ravana was king of Amarkantaka, & peak of the Vindhyachala mountains, whence the sacred river Narmada takes its rise. The Dandaka forest was inhabited by wild tribes, of whom the Gonds were most prominent, as they still continue to be, numbering over two millions, a strength which no other tribe or caste in that province attains. It is, therefore, likely that most of the place. names are in the language of these Gonds, as also in that of the Oraons, who are believed to have been the vanaras or monkeys' of Rema's army; but several of them have undergone such a change by Aryan influence, in fact have become so sanskritized as to look Aryan in their present forms. Mr. Ramdas of Jeypore Zamîndarf in the south has gone so far as to say that even in Valmiki's Ramayana, they were put in such a garb as to look sanskritic, though they were in origin purely Dravidian, to which Gondi, Oraon and other wild languages conform. He has made a special study of the Savara language, remnants of which still remain in the Ganjam District. Savaras find mention even in the Vedic literature (Aitareya Brahmana) and probably they allied themselves with Rama as Riksas, or bears, in the fight between Rama and R&vana, the king of Räkşasas or Gonds. Be that as it may, he traces the origin of the following well-known places mentioned in the Ramayana to the Savara language. He says 1 :-"In the language of Sabars or Savaras, Lanka means above, tall, high, and it is used to signify the sky or heaven. Any high object is indicated by this word.......Lanka was originally a Savara word and was adopted into Sanskrit...... The people of Lanka living on the top of the hill spoke of Khara's camp as Jaitan, down or below ...... This name easily becomes Janasthana in the mouths of the Aryans.... The word Dandaks does not mean of the king Danda,' but signifies 'full of water. It is made of dan+dak+a, the final d being the Savara genitive termination. In Savara language dan means 'water,' in other dialects of Savara dak is the word for water. So dan+dak denotes excess of water. Dan+dak+d means of much water.' Dan+dak+a+aranya means the forest of much water.'”
Without endeavouring to unfold the mysteries of classic names, I would here quote some examples of place-names, which are absolutely aboriginal and have undergone hardly any change. Mr. Ramdas has been speaking of the Savara language, which continues to be
1 JBORS., vol. XI, pp. 43 ff.
> For emphasis, words carrying the same meaning are duplicated, e.g., balla fale, in which the first word is Hindi for a bull and the second a Gondi word for the same,