1874.] F. S. Growse —The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. 339 
name of tlie local deity or it may be of the founder of the settlement, and 
in that gives a surer clue to the process of corruption in the village name, 
than could ever be afforded by any amount of library research. For exam¬ 
ple, the resolution of such a word as Senwa into its constituent elements 
might seem a hopeless undertaking ; but the clouds are dispelled on ascer¬ 
taining that a neighbouring pond of reputed sanctity is known as Syam- 
kund. Thence it may reasonably be inferred that the original form was 
Syam-ganw ; the final m of Syam and the initial g of ganw being elided by 
the rules already quoted, and the consonant y passing into its cognate vowel. 
Other names in the district, in which the affix, ganw may be suspected to 
lurk in a similarly mutilated condition, are Jaiswa for Jay-sinh-ganw; 
Basaun for Bishan-ganw ; Bhiun for Bhim-ganw ; Badon for Badu-ganw 
(Badu being for Sanskrit Badava) ; and Ohawa for Udha-ganw. 
Another word of yet wider signification than either jpuri or grama , and 
one which is known to have been extensively used as a local affix in early 
times is sthdna, or its Hindi equivalent tdiana. And yet, strange to say, 
there is not a single village name in the whole district in which its presence 
it apparent. It probably exists, but if so, only in the very mutilated form 
of ha. Thus the village of Satoha on the road between Mathura and Go- 
bardhan is famous for, and beyond any doubt whatever derives its name 
from, a sacred pond called Santanu-kund. The eponymous hero is a mytho¬ 
logical character of such remote antiquity, that he is barely remembered at 
all at the present da}", and what is told about him on the spot is a strang- 
jumble of the original legend. The word Satoha therefore is no new crea¬ 
tion, and it can scarcely be expected to have escaped from the wear and tear 
of ages to which it has been exposed, without undergoing even very material 
changes. The local wise-acres find an etymology in sattu , 4 bran,’ which 
they assert to have been Santana’s only food during the time that he was 
practising penance. But this is obviously absurd, and Satoha, I am con¬ 
vinced, is an abbreviation for Santanu-sthana. Instances are very frequent 
in which words of any length and especially proper names are abbreviated 
by striking out all but the first syllable and simply adding the vowel u to 
the part retained. Thus in common village speech at the present day 
Kalyan is almost invariably addressed as Kalu, Bhagavan as Bhagu, Bala- 
vant as Balu, and Mulchand as Mulu. In the last example the long vowel 
of the first syllable is also shortened and thus an exact parallel is afforded 
to the change from Santanu to Satu or Sato. Sato-thana then by ordinary 
rule, if only the th in the compound is regarded as non-initial, becomes Sato- 
hana; and the further loss of the final na cannot be regarded as an insuper¬ 
able difficulty. 
An affix, which has itself suffered from organic decay has a tendency 
to involve its support in the same destruction, and thus I feel no difficulty 
