31G F. S. Growse —The Etymology of Local Names in N. India. [No. 4, 
presentation of a -f a by an rather than a being almost an invariable practice, 
as we see in ran, a contraction for raja, panic for pada, nau for nava, and tau 
for tat a. 
Kci however is not the only sign of the genitive case in use ; for in the 
Marwari dialect its place is occupied by rd. Of this too there are abundant 
examples, as might have been anticipated ; for some centuries ago, migrations 
from Rajpiitana into Mathura were very frequent and in a less degree conti¬ 
nue to the present day. Thus, we have Umraura, Lohrari, Ganesara, Bhu- 
rari, Puthri (from path, a sand-hill), Bhainsara, Garumra (for Garuda-ra) 
and Bagharra, &c. At the last named place the old village site is called 
Sher-hd-hherd, which puts the meaning of the word Bagharra beyond a 
doubt; the reduplication of the r being purely phonetic. Other names of 
a slightly different character are Kunjera (where is Kunj-ban), Bahera, 
Ranera (founded by Sissodia Thakurs, who named it after the Rana of 
Chitor whence they had migrated), Maghera, Nonera, and Konkera, Sc c. 
In these the prolongation of the second syllable of each word makes it pro¬ 
bable that the affix is not simply rd, but rather hard. This word is known 
to be exactly identical in meaning with the more common wald, of which, as 
a component in a village name, we have two illustrations in the district, viz. 
ara and Bhadanwara. It is therefore not in itself unlikely that hard 
would be used for the same purpose; and the belief that it really has been 
so used, is confirmed by the fact that Banahara and Nonahara are alternative 
modes of spelling Ranera and Nonera, and are perhaps the more popular of 
the two among village scribes. In rapid speaking it is difficult to distinguish 
between the sounds of ahara and era ; as may be familiarly exemplified by 
the great Hindu festival, the Dasahara, which by people who aim only at 
representing the vulgar pronunciation, is invariably spelt Dusserah. Thus 
such words as hamera 1 a workman,’ from ham, 1 work,’ and cliitera, 1 a pain¬ 
ter’ from chitra 1 a painting’—being obviously exactly identical in sense with 
ham-wdla and chitrawala —may be best explained by supposing that the 
original termination was hard ; and in the same way Nonera, meaning ‘ Salt- 
town’ (from Ion or non, the Hindi form of the Sanskrit lavana), if written 
in full, would be Lavanahara, or Nona-hara. These considerations are in¬ 
teresting, since they supply with almost absolute certainty the derivation of 
the particle rd as the sign of the genitive case. It is the second syllable of 
hard, the first syllable of which is always combined with and lengthens the 
final vowel of the first member of the compound. The more common hd , 
with precisely the same signification, is of entirely different origin and re¬ 
presents the Sanskrit affix aha. 
In the same way as hd has been unable to resist mutilation, so also with 
rd; though in the latter case it is not the consonant, but the vowel that 
has suffered. There consequently remains only the letter r ) which we see 
