1874.] F. S. Growse —The 'Etymology of Local Names in N. India. 337 
want of affinity between the two members of the compound, which would 
prevent them from coalescing, however long they might be bound toge¬ 
ther. 
To say that the actual process of transition can never be detected is 
not strictly in accordance with facts. The elision is not restricted to proper 
names, but is applicable to all words alike; and in Hindi books written 
and printed at the present day it is optional with the writer to use exclu¬ 
sively either Tcolcila, or Jcoil ; sukar or suar ; hup or hua, or both indiffer¬ 
ently. Again, to take a local illustration : Gobardhan, being a place of 
high repute, is always so spelt by well-informed people, but in vulgar writ¬ 
ing it is contracted to Gordhan, and it is almost exceptional to come across 
a man whose name is Gobardhan Das, who does not acquiesce in the cor¬ 
ruption. 
Next to pur, the local affix of most general signification and the one 
which we should therefore expect to find occupying the second place in 
popular use is grama, gama , or ganw. It occurs, however, far less frequently, 
at least in an unmutilated state. Thus of the 61 villages in the Kosi par- 
gana there are only two with this affix, viz., Dahi-ganw, named from the 
Dadhi-kund, and Pai-ganw from the Pai-ban-kund ; dadhi and pagas both 
meaning ‘ milk.’ In the 111 Chhata villages there are four, viz., Bhauganvv 
Nand-ganw, Naugama, and Uncha-ganw. In the 163 Mathura villages 
there are six, wz.,Baclih-ganw, Dhan-ganw, Jakhin-ganw, Naugama (properly 
Na-gama from its founder Naga), Nirn-ganw, and Uncha-ganw. In the 141 
Mat villages there is only one, Tenti ka ganw, and this a name given by 
Baja Suraj Mall on account of the abundance of the Icaril plant with its fruit 
called tenti to a place formerly known as Akbar-pur. In the 203 Mahaban 
villages only two, viz., Nim-ganw and Pani-ganw ; and in the 129 Sa’dabad 
villages, four, viz., Kukar-gama, Naugama, Risgama, and Tasigau. The pro¬ 
portion is therefore little more than two per cent, and even of this small 
number the majority may reasonably be presumed to be of modern date. 
Thus Nau-gama in the Chhata pargana was formed in later Muhammadan 
times by a moiety of the population of 'the parent village Taroli, who under 
imperial pressure abandoned their ancestral faith and submitted to the yoke 
of Islam. Again the five or six villages, such as Bachh-ganw, Dahi-ganw, 
&c. that have sprung up round the sacred groves and lakes and retain the 
name of the Urath unaltered, simply substituting game for the original 
ban or kund, are almost certainly due to the followers of Vallabhacharya at 
the beginning of the 16th century, or to the Gosain who composed the 
modern Bralima-vaivarta Purana and first made these spots places of Vaish- 
nava pilgrimage. It may therefore be inferred that in older names the 
termination grama has, like puri, been so mutilated as to become difficult of 
recognition. The last name on the list, viz., Tasigau, is valuable as suggest- 
