1886.] R. S. Wliiteway —Place names in Merwdra. 137 
that divide it from that of Meywar on the east, of Marwar on the west, 
and of Ajmere on the north. It is to illustrate this language and to 
show how place names are in the process of formation that I have put 
together the appended list. The names consist of (a) Villages on the 
Government list (h) Tanks where these differ from the villages (o) 
Hills, valleys and streams, (a) Villages. Hamlets are now springing up 
in every direction—dang'er alone in such a difficult country could keep 
the people in large villages— only very few names of hamlets are given 
as they are generally called after their founders as Basiajaga—Jaga’s 
hamlet or Gudha Biram, Biram’s hamlet. Of the 330 villages on the 
Government list, 160 are called after some person, caste or local god— 
the names of most of the others are analysed below. These names 
have suffered great mutilation at the hands of the Persian writers of the 
offices. I have tried in each case to get the oldest and real form of the 
word, and then if I could trace any thing in the history, local position or 
peculiarity of the village, to explain it. As might have been expected 
50 years wear and tear have caused some phonetic changes but in all 
cases the names are peculiarly appropriate. The older villages Jhak, 
Aslum, Chhapli have names more or less connected with the predatory 
habits of the people. Many refer to the pastoral habits as Mewasa— 
others refer to the physical peculiarities of the inhabited site as Hholi- 
chat and others to that of the village lands as Sendra. The names 
in class B are not so worn as those in class A while those in C are not 
worn at all. These latter are seldom used far from their immediate 
neighbourhood—though well-known there, and they have never been 
reduced to writing. Only a few have been given as they are innume¬ 
rable. These names are very valuable as giving the real speech of the 
people as opposed to the language taught in schools—this speech is 
very rich in names for every kind of rock, stone, ravine and embank¬ 
ment. Wild animals are not numerous—there are a few tigers, bears, 
leopards, sambhar and nilgai—of these the tiger and sambhar are re¬ 
presented in this list—the bear (richh) leopard (begai) and nilgai (loz) 
are not—of animals now extinct the plainest traditions refer to the 
wild buffalo (arna), but I can find no name unless it be the hamlet of 
Arnali. The local explanation of Arnali however that here cowdung 
(also called arna) was collected in the jungle seems a probable one. 
Elephants, if there ever were any, have left no tale. The references to 
local trees and bushes are very frequent. I may add that names are 
given from some peculiarities and not from general characteristics—thus 
the few streams and tanks whose name is compounded with khara ‘ salt' 
show that the majority of them have sweet water. 
R 
