PLACES IN TANJORE. 



45 



and it is generally very difficult, often impossible, to discover 

 them. Still local circumstances and traditions occasionally 

 point to the true etymology whence the original form may he 

 approximately reconstructed or fairly guessed at ; hut there is 

 a very general impression that the tradition itself has been 

 often invented to account for the name. It is not, therefore, 

 to be supposed that the names here given and their etymology 

 are correct ; but they may be accepted as the current local 

 usage and traditional explanation as given by the village 

 elders questioned on the subject. Their answers were some- 

 times contradictory ; some declaring the name had no root- 

 meaning whatever, nor ever had any, but was simply the 

 proper name which they and their forefathers had used from 

 the very beginning ; whilst others were as quick in giving a 

 ready-made derivation or explanation of which several were 

 frequently forthcoming for the same name. A few only 

 here and there offered a reasonable origin, explaining the 

 gradual corruptions and contractions that the name in ques- 

 tion had undergone, and appealing to the authority of existing 

 or well-known facts, or to history that could be consulted for 

 confirmation. These were perhaps the modern instances upon 

 which also further light was to be had from the Sanskrit name 

 of the village temple or name of the local deity, to whom its 

 chief shrine was dedicated, as told in the Sthalapurana or local 

 history. 



The evidence of persons from adjacent villages was often 

 taken, and the name itself was taken down in the vernacular 

 (Tamil) on the spot in the handwiiting of a resident who could 

 write, usually the headman (Maniyakaran), the chief village 

 officer (Munsif ) , or the village accountant (Kanakkappillai) . 



I have prefaced the list of place-names with a few general 

 remarks upon the results I have arrived at, and have appended 

 a classified tabular statement of the characteristic adjuncts of 

 the proper names. This is followed by some notes on the 



