140 On the Transliteration of Indian Alphabets. [No. 2, 



Srawaka is in a confused manner indicated before the conclusion of the 

 article, but without recognizing the fact that the name (literally 

 " a hearer") indicates a purely religious distinction, and that it does 

 not imply a difference of race any more than the term " Roman 

 Catholic" implies an Italian by descent. 



I may here incidentally observe that in this district (Mainpuri) the 

 Jains, who form a considerable item in the population, are known 

 popularly only by the name of Saraugis, which also is clearly a corrup- 

 tion of the same word Srawaka. Their habits and customs are of 

 course the same as those described by Col. Dalton. 



If my suggestion as above were adopted by the Society, the same 

 principle would be consistently carried out in compiling the list of 

 members with their places of residence, where we should no longer 

 see Babu alternating with Baboo (the latter invariably suggesting the 

 loss of a final n) and the first step might be taken towards the correc- 

 tion of our present barbarous local nomenclature. Our maps are no 

 doubt admirable as results of engineering skill, but in a literary point of 

 view, they are ridiculous, — a large proportion of local names, especially 

 Hindi words, being utterly distorted from the original form. Thus 

 for instance, I have never yet seen a map where the common village 

 name Kushalpur was not spelt with an initial Persian kh, as if it 

 were a derivative of Tchush ; and yet it might be supposed that if 

 any Hindi word were to be allowed to retain its identity, it would 

 be the name of a district so famous in ancient legend as Kos'ala, 

 which had Ayodhya for its capital, and gave a name to the mother of 

 the national hero Rama. Upon this point I cannot do better than 

 quote the words of the late Prof. Wilson, who, describing Indian 

 maps as miserably defective in their nomenclature, says, " None of 

 our surveyors or geographers have been oriental scholars. It may be 

 doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language 

 of the country. They have consequently put down names at random, 

 according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds, carelessly, 

 vulgarly and corruptly uttered ; and their maps of India are crowded 

 with appellations which bear no similitude either to past or present 

 denominations. There is scarcely a name in our maps, that does not 

 afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy, and of an incorrectness 

 in estimating sounds which is in some degree perhaps a national 



