340 F. S. Growse— The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. [No. 4, 
in proceeding a step further and interpreting the word 1 Paitha’ on the same 
principles as Satoha. It is the name of a large and apparently very ancient 
village with a temple of Chatur-bhuj, rebuilt on the foundations of an older 
shrine, which had been destroyed by Aurangzib. At the back of the god’s 
throne is a hollow in the ground, which has given rise to a local etymology 
of the usual unscientific character. For it is said to be the mouth of the 
cave into which the people of Braj ‘ entered’ ( paitha ) when Krishna upheld 
the Giri-raj hill, which is about two miles distant from the village, in order 
to shelter them from the storms of Indra. Absurd as the legend is, it sup¬ 
plies a suggestion : for yaithnd , the verb ‘ to enter,’ is unquestionably formed 
from the Sanskrit pravishta ; and if we imagine a somewhat analogous pro¬ 
cess in the case of the local name, and allow for the constant detrition of 
many centuries, we may recognize in 1 Paitha’ the battered wreck of Pra- 
tishthana, which in Sanskrit is not an unusual name for a town. 
JSthali, a word very similar in meaning to sthdna, suffers precisely the 
same fate, when employed as an affix ; all its intermediate letters being slurred 
over and only the first and last retained. Thus Kosi represents an original 
Kusa-sthali; and Tarsi with the sacred grove of Tal-ban, where according 
to the very ancient legend Krishna put to death the demon Dhenuk, is for 
Tala-sthali. 
Another termination which we find occurring with sufficient frequency 
to warrant the presumption that it is an affix with a definite meaning of its 
own is oi. There are 5 examples of it in the district, viz., Gindoi, Majhoi, 
Mandoi, Radoi, and Bahardoi. Of these the most suggestive is the first, 
Gindoi. Here is a pond of ancient sacred repute, called Gendokhar-kund, 
which is the scene of an annual mela, the Phul Dol held in the month of 
Phalgun. Hence we may safely infer that Gindoi is a compound word 
with Genda for its first element. This is not an uncommon name for a 
Hindu, and its most obvious meaning would be ‘ a marygold.’ So taken 
it would find a parallel in such proper names as Gulab ‘ a rose’ ; Tulsi, the 
sacred herb so called ; Phul, ‘ a flower’ ; and Puhap, for the Sanskrit pushp, 
with the same meaning. It may, however, be doubted whether it did not in 
the first instance represent rather the Hindi gainda , for gajendra , ‘ an ele¬ 
phant.’ Besides preserving the name of the village founder, the term Gen¬ 
dokhar-kund is curious in another respect, as shewing a complete popular 
forgetfulness of the meaning of the termination obhar at the time when the 
word bund with precisely the same import was added. English topography 
supplies a case exactly in point; for Wansbeckwater is composed of three 
words, which all mean exactly the same thing, but were current in popular 
speech at different times, being respectively Danish, German, and English. 
But to return to Gindoi, which we have found to be a compound word with 
Genda for its first element; the termination oi yet remains to be considered. 
