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medieval literature of India. The other prominent mountains are quite freely referred to with compound names that contain one of the synonyms of parvata such as adri, giri, śaila, or acala. Sri-parvata, on the other hand, does not commonly attract designations like sri-giri (see note 20c). In addition, (b) if a mountain is to be referred to by dropping a part of its name for the sake of brevity or for the sake of preserving the meter, the part to be dropped should be dispensable from some point of view. The stem śrī, figuring in the name Srī-parvata, is so commonly employed as an honorific before names (including the names of other prominent mountains) that we should not be surprised if it was occasionally looked upon as an honorific even in the name Srī-parvata and thus thought to be dispensable.
The thoughts expressed in the preceding paragraph are not mere speculation. There is in fact a tradition of referring to Srī-parvata simply as parvata (Dhere 1977:106, 121-23, 135). It may not have arisen for the reasons alluded to above and may be due to the importance of Sri-parvata as perceived by the people of India, particularly of south India ("Srī-parvata is the mountain; when someone uses the word parvata, it is Srī-parvata that first comes to mind'). However, what matters for us is that it is clearly there and that even the interpretation 'mountain of Sri' of the name Sri-parvata did not preclude occasional dropping of the component śrī.
4.6 It will thus be seen that the second possibility (general term used particularistically) need not be viewed as a possibility in theory only. Besides explaining what looks like a lack of precision (it is not that an ancient
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