1874.] F. S. drowse— The 'Etymology of Local Names in N. India. 341 
I take it to be vapi, ‘ a pond.’ By elision of tliey) and change of v into its 
cognate vowel, Genda-vapi becomes Gendau-ai, whence Gindoi; o being 
substituted for au, and i for ai by the following Sutras of Vararuchi, Auta 
ot I. 41. and I'd dhairye I. 39. The latter rule, it is true, refers strictly 
only to the word dhairya , which becomes dhvram in Prakrit, but it seems 
not unreasonable to give it a wider application. The above line of argu¬ 
ment would command unqualified assent, if it could be shewn that each of 
the places with the oi ending was in the neighbourhood of some considerable 
pond. There is such a one at Mandoi, called Acharya-kund ; and Bahardoi, 
founded at an early period by Thakurs from Chitor, who only about 30 
years ago lost their proprietory rights and now have all migrated elsewhere, 
is a place subject to yearly inundations, as it immediately adjoins some low 
ground where a large body of water is always collected in the rains. Badoi 
I have never had an opportunity of seeing, and therefore cannot say whe¬ 
ther its physical characteristics confirm or are at variance with my theory : 
but at Majhoi, which is a Gujar village on the bank of the Jamuna, there 
is certainly no vestige of any large pond, which would account for the affix 
vapi. This one proved exception cannot, however, be regarded as a fatal 
objection; for the same effect may result from very different causes ; as, for 
instance, the Hindi word bar in the sense of ‘ a day of the week’ represents 
the Sanskrit vara ; while if taken to mean ‘ water,’ or ‘a child,’ it stands 
in the one case for vari, in the other for bala. Thus in the particular word 
Majhoi, the o may belong to the first element of the compound and the i be 
the affix of possession. 
A'na is another termination of somewhat rare occurrence. This is in 
all probability an abbreviation of the Sanskrit ay ana , which means primari¬ 
ly ‘ a going,’ ‘ a road,’ but is also used in the wider sense of simply ‘ place.’ 
An example very much to the purpose is supplied by Vararuchi, or rather 
by his commentator Bhamalia, who incidentally mentions munjana , ‘ a place 
producing the munja plant,’ as the Prakrit equivalent for the Sanskrit 
maunj ayana. The district contains nine places which exhibit this ending, 
viz., Dotana, Halwana, Hathana, Malirana, Siliana, Kaulana, Mirtana, 
Diwana, and Barsana. But what was only suspected in the case of the 
Gindoi group, viz., that all the names do not really belong to the same 
category, is here susceptible of positive proof. But to take first some of 
the words in which ayana seems an appropriate affix : Dotana, derived on 
the spot from ddnton, 1 a tooth-brush,’ which is suggestive of Buddhist 
legends and therefore of ancient sanctity, may well be for Devatayana; 
Halwana, where an annual mela is celebrated in honour of Balarama, may 
have for its first element Hala-bhrit, a title of that hero, the final t being 
elided and the bh changed into v ; while the first syllable in the three names 
Hathana, Kaulana, and Mirtana, may represent respectively Iiasti, Koma, 
