Mapping Place Names of India by Kapur Anu;

Author:Kapur, Anu;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

FIGURE 6.1 Variations in spelling of names prior to the British orthography of standardization.

Source: Compiled by the author.

A random check of half a dozen travelogues on Gujarat reeled out as many as ten different spellings: Gozurat, Guchrat, Gujrat, Gurjjara, Guzatts, Guzerat, Gurjarastra, Gurjaratta and Gurjardesh, apart from Gujarat. Nicobar finds itself variously spelt Nacabar, Nakkavar, Necurveran, Nconvar, Nicoveran and Nicubar. One comes across Bengal as Bang, Bangala, Banghella, Bemgala, Bengala, Bungaleh and Vanga. There was hardly any place names of India that did not lug around at least half a dozen versions of spellings. There is Decan, Dekkan, and Deckan; Tanjaor, Tanjowar and Tanjore; Cachemire, Cashmeer, Cassimere, Kashmir and Kasmir; Pengab, Penjaub and Punjab; and hundreds more. Historically, the spellings of place names lacked consistency. A study of Mumbai showed the following versions and their year of usage: Momboyan (1525), Bombay (1538), Mombain (1552), Mombaym (1552), Monbaym (1554), Mombaim (1563), Mombaym (1644), Bombaye (1666), Mombaim (1666), Mombeye (1676), Bombaye (1666), Bombeye (1676) and Boon Bay (1690) (Suryawanshi and Pawar, 2016).

In addition, the stock of people referred to the same place differently. The French settlement is Puduchcheri or New Town, Hindus call it Puthvai or Puthucceri, Muslims call it Pulcheri and Madras Glossary lists it under the word Pulchari (Yule and Burnell, 1903). Similar is the case of Kashmir. Hindus called it Kaschah mar, the Muslims Kashuf Mir and the people of Gilgit, Kashir, while earlier European travellers mention it as Cashmere.

The problem of multiple spellings and references is the contribution of the recorders of place names. Since people, be they voyagers, missionaries, merchants, chroniclers, railway engineers or army personnel, came from different lands and had backgrounds of other languages, they heard and spoke and spelt the name of a place in any manner that struck their fancy, convenience or roughly represented the sound as received by the untrained ear.

The concern was largely with conveying information rather than with the consistency or accuracy of spellings. Even when engineers or planners set out to survey the land, their prime focus was on matters such as relief or hydrology. A precise verification of place names was of incidental interest to them. As a result, the quality of the toponymic content differed greatly from one surveyor or map editor to another, as also from one region to another. De Havilland, the cartographer who prepared a map of Coimbatore in the eighteenth century, confesses:

in writing the names of places, although I have attempted throughout to adopt the orthography of the Tameel which appear to me the language of aborigine of that country, I am sensible, as well from my very slender knowledge of that tongue, as from my being unable frequently to obtain the real names of places written in the languages itself that I have materially failed in this respect.

(cited in Phillimore, 1945 )

The confusion regarding place names added serious blunders:

A map of the Doab, prepared by the Surveyor-General from materials in his office, presented the road from Kanhpur to Akbarpur as double: being

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