Place Names of Bengal

Introduction A study of the place-names is important from various view points: linguistic, anthropological and historical. An analysis of the place-names from linguistic point of view may throw some light on language and on general culture-of the people. In India, no systematic work on this subject has yet been undertaken. Only a few scholars have touched upon it. Prof. S. K. Chatterji in his O.D B.L. has drawn our attention to the importance of the linguistic aspect of the study of place-names. Dr. H. D. Sankalia has done some valuable work on the place-names of Gujarat in his work "Studies in the Historical and Cultural Geography and Ethnography of Gujarat". Sri Visva Nath Kasi Nath Rajawade has also made important contribution to the study of the place-names of Maharashtra in his essays entitled "Maharashtra Ca Vasahat Kala" in "Aitihasika Vividha Visaya, part I". Some scholars outside India had taken up the subject in right earnest and they had studied the place-names of England, Scandanavia and America. Besides the various political and cultural forces that lie behind nomenclature of places they have also brought to light, the ethnographic and archaeological importance of t he subject.

India is a land of villages. Every village name has got a meaning behind it, either expressed or disguised. It must have a history. With the name of a village the ancient history of the place may be closely connected. In course of time the real significance of a name tends to be corrupted through phonological charges and, as such, it may become rather difficult to get at the true meaning of the names of the village. Most of the modern Bengali place-names which have come down to us through wear and tear or centuries have certainly changed a great deal of their original forms and sometimes it has become very difficult even to determine the proper line of their modification.

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