326 F. S. Growse —The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. [No. 4, 
and the whole history of language must be rewritten from the very com¬ 
mencement. 
Perhaps of all countries in the world, northern India is the one which for 
an investigation of this kind is the most self-contained, and the least in need 
of alien analogies. Its literary records date from a very remote period ; are 
in fact far more ancient than any architectural remains or even than any 
well authenticated site, or definitely established era, and they form a con¬ 
tinuous and unbroken chain down to this very day. From the Sanskrit of 
the Vedas to the more polished language of the Epic poems, and through the 
Prakrit of the dramatists, the old Hindi of Chand and the Braj Bhasha of 
Tulsi Das, down to the current speech of the rural population of Mathura 
at the present time, the transitions are never violent, and at most points are 
all but imperceptible. The language, as we clearly see from the specimens 
which we have of it in all its successive phases, is uniform and governed 
throughout by the same phonetic laws. And thus, neither from the intrinsic 
evidence of indigenous literature, nor from the facts recorded by history, is 
it permissible to infer the simultaneous existence in the country of an alien¬ 
speaking race at any period to which it is reasonable to refer the foundation 
of places that still bear a distinctive name, prior to the Muhammadan inva¬ 
sion. The existence of such a race is simply assumed by those who find it 
convenient to represent as non-Aryan any formation which their acquaint¬ 
ance with unwritten Aryan speech in its growth and decay is too superficial 
to enable them at once to identify. 
As local etymology is a subject which can only be investigated on the 
spot and therefore lies beyond the range of European scholars, its study is 
necessarily affected by the prejudices peculiar to Anglo-Indian officials, who 
are so accustomed to communicate with their subordinates only through the 
medium of Urdu that most of them regard that lingua franca as being really 
wdiat it is called in official parlance, the vernacular of the country. This 
familiarity with the speech of the small Muhammadan section of the com¬ 
munity, rather than with that of the Hindu masses, causes attention to be 
mainly directed to the study of Persian and Arabic, which are considered 
proper to the country, while Sanskrit is thought to be utterly dead, of no 
interest save to professional scholars and of no more practical import in 
determining the value of current phrases than Greek or Hebrew. 
The prejudice is to be regretted, as it frequently leads writers, even in 
the best informed London periodicals, to speak of India as if it were a purely 
Muhammadan country, and to urge upon the Government, as highly con¬ 
ciliatory, measures which if taken would most effectually alienate the sym¬ 
pathies of the vast majority. 
Neither Urdu, Persian, nor Arabic, is of much service in tracing the 
derivation of local names, and it is hastily concluded that words which 
