334 F. S. Growse —The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. [No. 4, 
an Aryan period, when the language of the country was in essentials the 
same as it is now and the people inhabiting it bore much the same names as 
they do still. Thus Sanchauli is derived from Sanchi Devi who has a tem¬ 
ple there ; Sujauli from a founder Sujan, whose descendants are still the 
proprietors, and Parsoli and Taroli from founders named respectively Parsa 
and Tara. It may he presumed with absolute certainty that these people, 
hearing such purely Indian names, whether they lived 5, 10, or 15 genera¬ 
tions ago, knew no language but their own vernacular, and could not borrow 
from any foreign tongue the titles by which they chose to designate their 
new settlements. Thus Dr. Hunter, and those who have followed him 
in his speculations, may he correctly informed when they state that 
in Tamil, or Telugu, or Toda, or even in Basque there is a word uri, or 
uru, or ur , which means ‘ village’ ; hut yet if this word was never current 
in the ordinary speech of Upper India, the founders of the villages quoted 
above cannot possibly have known of it. The attempt to borrow such a 
name as Sujauli or Malioli directly from the Basque is, when viewed under 
the light of local knowledge, really more absurd than to derive Cannington 
from Kanhay, or Dalhousie from Dala-hasi , ‘with pleasant foliage’. The 
misconception, as already observed, has arisen from the erroneous idea that 
all village names are of remote antiquity and may therefore be illustrated 
by philological analogies collected from all parts and ages of the world. In 
truth, uli or uri is simply puri with the initial consonant elided. Such an 
elision, removing as it does the most distinctive element in the word, may 
appear at first sight highly improbable: it is, however, in strict accord with 
the rules of Hindi formation. The two first siitras of the second Book of 
Vararuchi’s Prakrita-Prakasa in the clearest manner direct it to be made. 
The text stands thus : 
(1.) Ayuktasy anadau (2.) Ka -ga-cha-ja-ta-da -p a-ya-va m p r ago lop ah . 
That is to say, the consonants k, g, ch, j, t, d, p, y, and v, when single and 
non-initial, are generally elided. And as a convincing proof that this is no 
mere grammatical figment, but a practical rule of very extensive application, 
take the following familiar words, in which its influence is so obvious as to 
be undeniable. By the elision of the prescribed consonant we obtain from 
the Sanskrit sukar, the Hindi suar, : a pig’; from kokila , koil, 1 the 
cuckoo’ ; from siwhi, sui, ‘ a needle’; from tdtd, tau , ‘ a father’s elder bro¬ 
ther’ ; from pada,pdo, ‘ a quarter’ ; from kupa , Jcua, ‘ a well’; from Praydg , 
Frag, the Hindi name of Allahabad; and from jiva, jia, ‘life.’ The rule, 
it is true, provides primarily that the letter to be elided must be non-initial; 
but one of the examples given in. the text is su uriso for sic purusha, ‘ a 
good man’ ; where the^> is still elided although it is the initial of the word 
purusha. This the commentator explains by declaring that “ the initial 
letter of the last member of a compound must be considered as non-initial.” 
