THE PEOPLE

PECULIAR VILLAGE NOMENCLATURE.

Village names in Candrapur make a complicated, if rather amusing, study. They are usually derived from Telugu, Marathi and Gondi. But a Kannada termination ur or uru is common. Telugu terminations meaning village are palli, gudiam or gudam peta and puram. These are generally found in Sironca tahsil but they have penetrated in the northern tract also. Typical examples are Etapalli, a hamlet of Sindi trees; Mamidigudiam, a mango-tree village; Muyyaboinpeta, a village of wood-cutting and Kondapuram, a hill town. Glasfurdpeta commemorates a former popular Deputy Commissioner of Sironca and Cinchpalli is a mixture of Marathi and Telugu, meaning a village of tamarind trees, Cintapalli being the pure Telugu equivalent. Marathi terminations meaning village which are prevalent in the northern part of the district are pur, gaon, peth, kheda and khedi, while other favourite endings are vada, (palace), gadh (fort) and jhari (a spring). Common instances are Ballalpur, Ballal's city from the name of the founder Ballal Sah; Soneganv, a golden village, Ghodpeth, the horse ward; Rankheda, a jungle village; Rajgadh. a royal fort; Gangavada, a water palace: Ghorajhari, the horse spring. Other terminations are tukum, possibly derived from Gondi, meaning a small village settled out of a larger one as Sattaratukum, a suburb of Sattara. Buzurg, meaning large and khurd meaning small as Vihar buzurg, big Vihar and Meha khurd, little Meha. Common Gondi terminations are tola equivalent to tukum as in Manpurtola in Kukurmeta and Raiknar, meta and nar are Gondi endings.

The polyglot character of the district is illustrated by many different names equivalent meaning, such as, Dhanoli and Viyampalli, both meaning rice village: Pulligudium and Wagnoli, meaning tiger village and Sathara and Useganv meaning sugarcane village. Name of founders and of gods are often preserved in the names of the villages, e.g., Sankarpur and Pocammapalli which commemorate gods; Bamhani, Brahman's village, Korambi, shepherd's village, etc., commemorating founders. Examples of miscellaneous names are: Mukkudigutta, noseless hill; Corli, Corala and Corganv thieves village; Maldongri, hill for depositing stolen property: Kothari, granary: loni, butter; kolsa, coal; and Ghantacouki, guard house with the bell. Menda meaning bank of a tank is a frequent termination in well-irrigated tracts like Brahmapuri, as Aswalmenda, bearbank.

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