1874.] F. S. Growse— The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. 315 
at the two first is there any Sarae actually in existence ; both of these are 
large and substantial buildings erected b}^ local Governors on the line of the 
old Imperial road between Agra and Labor. The others were probably mere 
ranges of mud huts, like the ordinary sarae of the present day, and have 
therefore long since disappeared. 
The Persian terminations abdd and gang, which predominate so largely 
in some parts of India, have been little used in Hindi-speaking Mathura. 
Of abdd there are only six examples, being an average of one to each parga- 
na, viz., A’zam-abad and Murshid-abad, each commemorating a local Go¬ 
vernor in the reign of Aurangzib ; Aurang-abad, dating from the same 
period; Sa’dabad, the chief town on the demesne of Shah-jahan’s minister 
Sa’dullah Khan ; and Asaf-abad, Bir-ali-abad, Gulshan-abad, and Salim-abad, 
named after founders of less historical distinction. 
Having thus passed in review every affix denoting ‘ place,’ that we 
have been able to identify, we proceed to consider the second class of names, 
viz., those in which the affix signifies ‘possession.’ The examples under this 
head are equally numerous and in a philological point of view of no less 
importance ; but the whole series is traversed by a single clue, and if this is 
grasped at the beginning, it is found to lead so directly from one formation 
to another, that it precludes all necessity of pausing for lengthy considera¬ 
tion at any particular stage of the argument. Obviously, the simplest mode 
of expressing possession is by attaching to the name of the owner the gram¬ 
matical particle, whatever it may be, which in consequence of its familiar use 
has been selected as the special sign of the genitive or possessive case. This 
in modern Hindustani is led or hi, which we find employed in the following 
ten words, viz., Barka, Mahanki, Berka, Marhaka, Bhartiyaka, Bhureka, Ka- 
neka, Marhuaka, Salaka, and Siirka. In the last six names on the list the 
former part of the compound, viz., Bhartiya, Bhura, &c., is known to be the 
name of the Jat founder of the village. Thus we have an indisputable proof 
that about a century ago it was not at all an uncommon thing to form names 
of places in this way. If no earlier examples of the formation occur, it is most 
reasonable to explain their absence by inferring, as in the case of guri, that 
in the course of time the rough edges, that once marked the place where the 
word and its affix joined, have become so worn and smoothed down that they 
can no longer be felt. Now by eliding the h, a very simple proceeding and 
one quite in accordance with rule, an amalgamation would be effected be¬ 
tween the two elements of the compound which would totally alter their 
original appearance ; and we have only to reinsert it to discover the mean¬ 
ing of many names otherwise unintelligible. Thus Bhalai, a settlement of 
Bhal Thakurs, is seen to represent Bhdl-hi (basti ) ; Baghai is for Bagh-ki; 
Madanai, for Mandan-ki; Ugliai, for Ugra-ki ; Mahpai, for Malnpa-ld ; and 
so on. Similarly, Indau is for Indra-ka, and Karnau for Karna-ka : the re- 
