Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval India

Ancient Geography is an essential adjunct to history, and the usefulness of a compendium of such geographical information for a full and just appreciation of the latter hardly needs any mention, especially when time has mutilated or obscured the ancient names of places that usually figure in the historical narratives. Indian history, ancient or mediaeval, and the documents upon which it is principally based, are full of these names ; and unless they are elucidated in a systematic way as far as possible, the path of the historian and, for the narrator of that, of the ordinary readers of history, will continue uneasy for this difficulty alone. A study of the words in this Dictionary will show that time has mutilated original names almost out of recognition. The restoration of the altered derivatives to their genuine originals is not, however, an impossibility in view of the fact that most of the changes are found not to have taken place haphazardly. Barring names displaced new ones by some cause or other, they appear be most cases to by governed by the rules of Prakrit grammars, except where the peculiar brogue of a particular place has checked or modified the application of the rules. The Dictionary has remained a necessary companion for the students of Indian history for a long period of time.