[airguitar]

Names of places are often a sneak-peek into their undocumented history, of forgotten stories, traditions and sacrifices. Most place names in India are splittable into a prefix and a suffix. Suffixes are easy to guess and fall into a finite set; prefixes don't fall into a finite set and generally a reflection of the true history of the place.

It's time we had a post here on TBHP on origin of names of places. This post maybe used by different enthusiasts to report the names of places and how they originated. As a nation we don't have any organized way of annotating these. Even the locals of most places have forgotten/don't know why their village/town is called so. Let's chip away at creating such a list.

At a place that I and a fellow BHPian and friend stayed, the old man of the house narrated a nice story on the suffix "Gaaru". Gaaru in Kannada means "Rain". A Sanyasi was once walking through the malnad region when it started raining, it rained unabatedly for days. Based on the "style of rain" in each place, the Sanyasi went on naming the places. And so came into being "Jambagaru" aka "Proud Rains", which is the original name of the famous town of Sagara in Shimoga District. Sagara railway station is still called "Jambagaru railway station". And soon followed Bachchagaru, Kolachegaru, Kogaru and others.

Here's a list of 50 common suffixes that are used in Karnataka for place names. I welcome similar lists or partial sets of information from across the country. Couldn't figure how to create a table, so for the time being an image of my Excel it is.

[GForceEnjoyer]

Interesting thread. I came across these when bored a long time ago.




Here's a map of the distribution of some of these suffixes too.


Credits: IRFCA and Stats of India

[doxinboy]

Not so long time ago, two horsemen with a khaki top hat and a matching color uniform bearing the flag of Union Jack as a shoulder patch, felt lost on this drowsy winter evening. Their barracks seemed distant and were eager to return back as the darkness descended on this beautiful patch of earth lined with ancient rustic streets going nowhere.

They could barely see her earthern colourd face because of the evening mist. Yet, the deep crevices on her saggy face being illuminated by the kerosene lamp in front of her, assured the uniformed horsemen that the old woman is rather friendly and approachable.

She seemed to be sitting in a corner of a street selling something warm and people swarmed around her waiting for their turn to buy the mouthwatering delicacy. The horsemen approached the lady and asked her what she was selling and the lady replied "benda kalu" a local savoury. The horsemen after tasting the warm boiled beans gallooped to glory thinking that the "beanga kaaluu" they just tasted was the best thing that graced their mouth.

On returning to their barracks they told their friends about their journey to the "uru", the village that sold the most tastiest boild beans that they ever tasted in their lives. And when they smiled, their eyes twinkled with hope, pride and reverence.

[tilt]

A funny (probably apocryphal) story I heard many moons ago about a location in (used to be Madras).

There's this bridge in Triplicane (a neighbourhood in Madras) called Barber's bridge.

In British times it was known as Hamilton Bridge.

In Tamil, the word for "Bridge" is "Varaavadi". So, people called it "Hamilton Vaaravadi" which, when spoken at speed sounded more like "Ambattan Vaaravadi".

"Amabattan" is the Tamil word for "Barber". So, after years of being known as "Ambattan Vaaravadi" it got translated into English as "Barber's Bridge" and so it remains.

Cheers

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by tilt

A funny (probably apocryphal) story I heard many moons ago about a location in (used to be Madras).

Its not apocryphal, it is actually true.

https://maddy06.blogspot.com/2010/05...on-bridge.html

BTW: its now called Ambedkar Bridge.

PS : The tamil colloquial word for Toilet "Kakkoos" is of dutch origin, Kakhuis. No idea how.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by srini1785

*SNIP*
PS : The tamil colloquial word for Toilet "Kakkoos" is of dutch origin, Kakhuis. No idea how.

Probably because the Dutch East India Company was here before the British East India Company?

Cheers

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by srini1785

Its not apocryphal, it is actually true.

Same in Kannada too. Also in North Karnataka the word for your father's brother is kakka or kakkappa, like chikkappa Its maybe derived from the word kaaka.

[lapis_lazuli]

Wow! What all you can learn on TBHP!

Thanks to the OP and others, for this learning. In fact, this is the first time I learnt the word toponymy.

I notice many are similar across languages. For example, "palli" from South, means the same as "polli" in Bengal. Unity in diversity..?!? Somewhere despite the Aryan Dravidian divide, the linguistic origin seems to be common. Migration?

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

Same in Kannada too. Also in North Karnataka the word for your father's brother is kakka or kakkappa, like chikkappa Its maybe derived from the word kaaka.

Kaka is the right word for father's brother. Is is also used for husband of one's maternal aunt. The word has its roots in Marathi. In fact many of the Kannada words we use in North Karnataka are derived from Marathi.

Some words are listed here

[motorpsycho]

Originally Posted by airguitar

Couldn't figure how to create a table, so for the time being an image of my Excel it is.

RaniBennur - It is said, the meaning of the name is Queens resting place, so I think the Bennur is a Sandhi of Bennu and Urru, wherein Bennu means back, Urru means stretch. In Northern Karnataka Kannada, we commonly say "ಕಾಲು ಊರಿ ಕುರ್ತಿಕೋ", meaning Sit stretching your legs.

[anshumandun]

In Dehradun, there is a place called Chorkhala (Chor means thief). As a child I used to wonder that if all the thieves live there, why don't the cops just go and arrest them all?

[nareshov]

@airguitar

Found http://www.ijrhss.org/pdf/v2-i5/10.pdf that might be of interest.

[maddy42]

The way the word play occurs, no wonder we are united in our diverseness. Linguists will love this thread.

Great thread: In Kodava language we do see a lot of similarity with the following words where the pronounciation is slightly different:

• Ooru - Becomes Oorr - Village (Ex: Kanoor, Kothoor, Kotoor)
• Kadu - Kaad - Forest(Ex: Churikad - Meaning = Churi is Thorn and Kad is Forest)

Some names from the local language:

• Okka - Family - (Ex: Arvathoklu, Napoklu)
• Naad - Inhabited place (Ex: Murnad, Marenaad, Madenaad, Kiggatnaad)

Originally Posted by anshumandun

In Dehradun, there is a place called Chorkhala (Chor means thief). As a child I used to wonder that if all the thieves live there, why don't the cops just go and arrest them all?

Trivia: The brits did have a hard time with certain set of people, who committed a lot of the crime in their era, from whom the word "Thug" also came into being. To prevent this crime from repeating, they were designated to certain areas and needed permission to venture out of these areas and were called the Denotifed tribes.

This was shown in the recent season of Delhi Crime.

Thankfully the law has been set right in the 70s.

[vigneshkumar31]

Lots of tales are such of Chennai and its collage of history.

Body Guard Muneeswarar Temple: Near Central Station, is not names so, because the deity would act as a bodyguard, but because the wall behind it is the perimeter of the President's BodyGuard Lines, of the erstwhile Madras Presidency.

When the city of Chennai expanded beyond border of Mylapore, and couldn't sustain the ever growing population, there was land reclaimed to the west. This area was called Mylai mel ambalam or an expansion to the west of Mylapore. Which soon became West Mambalam.

[nivatakavacha]

One of the names which has fascinated me from a young age is this place called "Anchuthengu" north of Trivandrum which the Europeans called "Anjengo". The place is famous for having a fort as well.

Anchuthengu literally means "Five Coconut trees" which is fascinating given that the Kerala coast is dotted with thousands and thousands of coconut groves and Anchuthengu is no different.

I wonder how that person, back in the day decided to name this place 5 coconut trees when it had and still has thousands of it. Guess it is a mystery which is lost to time.