342 F. S. Growse —The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. [No. 4, 
and Amrit; Amrit Sinh being recorded by tradition as the founder of the 
last named village. But the resemblance of Diwana and Barsana to any 
of the above is purely accidental. The former commemorates the Jat foun¬ 
der, one Diwan Sinh, whose name has been localized simply by the addition 
of the affix a , while Barsana has a history of its own, and that a curious 
one. It is now famous as the reputed birth-place of Radha, who is the 
only divinity that for the last two centuries at least has been popularly 
associated with the locality. But of old it was not so : the hill on which 
the modern series of temples has been erected in her honour, is of eccentric 
conformation, with four boldly-marked peaks ; whence it is still regarded by 
the local Pandits as symbolical of the four-faced divinity, and styled Brah¬ 
ma ha palidr , or ‘ Brahma’s hill.’ This lingering tradition gives a clue to 
the etymology : the latter part of the word being sanu, which is identical 
in meaning with palidr, and the former part a corruption of Brahma. But 
this, the true origin of the word, had entirely dropped out of sight even in 
the 16th century, when the writer of the Vraja-bhahti-vilasa was reduced to 
invent the form Brisha-bhanu-pura as the Sanskrit equivalent for the 
Hindi Barsana. A somewhat similar fate has befallen the companion hill of 
Nand-ganw, which is now crowned with the temple of Nand Rae Ji, Krishna’s 
reputed foster-father. Its real name, before Vaishnava influence had become 
so strong in the land, was Nandi-grama, by which title it was dedicated to 
Mahadeva in his character of Nandisvar, and the second person of the 
Hindu trinity, who has now appropriated all three of the sacred hills of 
Braj, was then in possession of only one, Gobardhan. 
The local name Mai, or Mau, for the one seems to be only a broader 
pronunciation of the other (in the same way as nau is the ordinary village 
pronunciation for ndi, ‘ a barber,’ the Sanskrit napita), is found occasion¬ 
ally in all parts of Upper India and appears also in the Mathura district, 
though not with great frequency.* Twice it stands by itself; twice as an 
affix, in Pipara-mai and Ris-mai; once in connection with a more modern 
name of the same place, Mai Mirza-pur; and twice, as in Rae-pur Mai and 
Bara Mai, where the exact relationship with the companion word may be a 
little doubtful. In most of these cases I consider it to be an abbreviation 
of the Sanskrit \main , meaning { land’ or ‘ a landed estate.’ The elision of 
the li is not according to any definite rule laid down by the Prakrit gram¬ 
marians, but certainly agrees with vulgar practice: for example, the word 
mahina , ‘ a month,’ is always pronounced maina; and if it were given its 
full complement of three syllables, a rustic would probably not understand 
what was meant. At Mai Mirzapur the tradition is that the name com¬ 
memorates one Maya Ram; and in the particular case, this very possibly 
* Mr. Blochmann informs me that he has noted with regard to this word ‘ Mau,’ 
that it is found all over the wide area extending from Western Malwa to Eastern Audh, 
hut docs not seem to occur in Bengal, Bihar, or Sindh. 
