After all, what is in the name?

Thirty-eight years ago, when I visited that place, I was unaware of its name and geography. I came here as an immigrant. However, when an engineer was brought to check the soil before building a house, he asked, 'Which place is this? What is its name?' he asked me as if he was a newcomer from a distant state. However, he turned out to be born and raised in Bhotahiti in Kathmandu and never came to this area. Even though the ring road was built, it was still a marginal area, taxis were not allowed even in the middle of the day. All around were paddy fields and scattered houses. In the Newar language, Gongbu means 'rooster (living) field' and the word Samakhusi means open or open.

What has become of the new bus park? Thousands of people flocked from ten directions. The original Gounda itself became the new bus park due to a variety of outsiders. I hear people say 'Gongpur' these days. Those who say Gongbu are treated with contempt by the newcomers who say 'Gongpur'. Samakhushi has also become 'Samakoshi' for them. They have been listening, happiness is alien to them.

In the Newar language, the suffix bu (more specifically bu) means field and there are other place names like that in Kathmandu: Khushibu, Balambu, Sambu. And Khusi suffix means river and there are other place names with Khusi like: Bhachakhusi, Hija Khusi (Newari name of Dhobi river), Chankhun Cha Khusi etc. Unaware of this fact, they started saying whatever they thought was easy. There was no one to explain them.

In the course of time, the original name will be confused with the original name, and over time, the name Sadde will be replaced by the name Bisadde, which has no rhyme or meaning.

It's one thing to mispronounce a place name out of ignorance, it's another thing to deliberately try to change a popular place name. An example of this is the attempt by Ekhari in the past to change the name of Handi village in Kathmandu to 'Harigram'. Some of the Bhaladmis living there may have found the name 'Handigaon', which is a 'nowhere pilgrimage', to be unpleasant for some reason and they had organized an organized campaign to change it to 'Harigram'. They argued that the name of the ancient Harigram settlement was corrupted to Handigaon. Its campaigners started the practice of writing Harigram on the head when writing letters, mentioning Harigram when revealing names and homelands, and advancing the argument that Harigram should be used through writing. The weight of their argument was getting heavier and it was not long before Handigaon was transformed into Harigram just as Gurgaon in Delhi became Gurugram.

Rich, learned architect Sudarshanraj Tiwari after detailed study and research released a book unraveling the history of Handigaon, in which it is confirmed that Handigaon is an ancient settlement with high art and culture established during the Lichchavi period. During the Lichchavi period, that settlement was called Andipringa and later it changed to Andigram and became Handigaon at present. Tiwari's analysis is there. Raithane resident of Handigaon Dr. From this conclusion drawn by Tiwari regarding the origin of the name of Handigaon, the zeal of the Bhaladami who chanted the name of Harigram in vain must have cooled down now.

However, in terms of maintaining originality, not all places have been able to stick like this. Two places inside Kathmandu Valley and at its end have lost their old names. One of them is 'Bhidungadam Thok' near Sitapaila which has now become 'Bhimadhunga'. The new generation who are used to this new name may not even know about its old name. Although I was born in a place far east of Kathmandu, grew up and entered Kathmandu only after becoming an adult, I came to know the name 'Bhidungadam Thok' around the year 2014. There's a little reason and story why I know it that way.

My father came to Kathmandu for the first time, in the year 2014 through the 'Byroad Road' which was built only a year ago. During his stay in Kathmandu, he had a meeting with his sister-in-law in Vasantpur, who fell in love with a Nepali army soldier and migrated to the then 'Nepal' from Dhankuta many years ago. His house was Bhidungadam Thok. Ba used to narrate the story of how he had walked to that village unaccounted for at that time due to his wife's Karbal. From that time, Bhidungadam Thok was engraved in my childhood brain. But, now I see that name has been replaced by 'Bhimdhunga'. There are many toponyms with the suffix ghol. One of them is not far from Kathmandu, like Kharel Thok. It is sometimes heard that those who do not know say that Lucknow should not be abandoned. However, here, the original name has been formally corrupted and changed to 'Bhimdhunga', not because of the tongues of the ignorant.

Another place that has been in the limelight recently due to a helicopter crash is Suryachaur in Nuwakot district, which is located on the north-western edge of Kathmandu. Ask any Raithane people of that area, they will say its real name is 'Suire Chaur'. Due to the sound similarity, someone may have mistakenly heard Surya Chaur. However, now that name has been banned. After the helicopter crash, that fake name became even more nationwide.

Now let's go a little east from Kathmandu to Sunsari, my former district in province number one. There was and still is a village called 'Haringara' near the border with India in the southern part of Sunsari district. What is different is that now it has officially adopted the changed name of 'Harinagar'. The name of the rural municipality is Harinagar. I wonder how it happened and what caused such a change. Does the name Haringara sound unsophisticated and impure?

There used to be another village called Chakarghatti on the banks of Saptakoshi towards the north of Haringara. A 'narrow gauge' train used to transport goods from Dharan's Ghopa to Chakarghatti during the construction of the Koshi barrage. In fact, the train crossed Chakarghatti and reached Bhimnagar on the border, where the barrage was being built. Oh, Chakraghatti, now! That is what is written in the nameplate of Bataghata. The same is printed in government documents. This Chakraghatti is the result of a cyclone in whose mind?

is even worse seeing that the place we used to call 'Panmara' has now been changed to 'Panbari'. Some half-wit thought that there is a Patrungbari next to it and there is a vegetable garden next to it, so its name should be - Panbari. However, historically the area had nothing to do with palm cultivation. As far as I know, the area was rather a farm. A small story is also attached here. In the thirteenth or fourteenth year of Samvat, I went to Panmara, taking the risk of the Ceuti river, which overflows in the rain, following the elders. Many people had gone there from Dharan Bazar. Red flags were buried in the fields, the farmers were shaking the fields, and the Panchebajas were planting the paddy. It was a populist planting. Perhaps a mass demonstration of the organized political awakening that was taking place among the common peasantry. It is natural to be surprised to see Panbari without the rhymes and arguments that we have known since then. Those who made Panmara Panbari may not have known that there are many other names of places that are formed with Mara suffix like Tharmara, Jogimara, Chormara, Bahunmara.

You must have heard the name of Sandakpur rural municipality located in Ilam district of eastern border of Nepal. I have also heard, but have not been there. The place I have heard about, visited and read about in books and newspapers is - Sandakphu. British botanist JD Hooker also visited that place. The place is also mentioned in the travelogues of other explorers. I understand that the Sandakfu is the name of a long range of high mountains almost straddling the border, just beyond which lies India's Singalila National Park. It is apparently a Lepcha language word. It is interpreted differently by different sources. In one saying, the meaning of the word is 'lake or high mountain with lush vegetation'. The meaning may vary, but it is a word of Lepcha language origin. India's Sikkim, Darjeeling and Nepal's Ilam, Taplejung area are also considered as the origin of the Lepcha race. After that man, why did Varnashankar build Sandakpur by mixing half of Lepcha and half of Sanskrit language? Would there be any harm in keeping Samuchcha and Sadde name Sandakfu?

Now let's go west from Kathmandu and reach Palpa district. It is a well-known fact that Palpa is an area under the twelve Magrants of Ektaka. Even now it is counted in Magar-dominated areas. Therefore, it is not strange that the names of the places there have the stamp of the Magar language or that the villages are named from the Magar language. River or river-related names such as Marsyangdi, Daraundi, Ramdi, etc. with the suffix di are derived from the Magar language. Aare Bhanjyang is one such name from the Magar language. Aare means garlic in Magar language. That is, Are Bhanjyang can be understood as Lasune Bhanjyang. However, the word Aare was not digestible to some of the learned and they interpreted it as 'Arya'. Arya in Magar land? Is there any rhyme or reason behind this? Aray Shabd did not ask for anything to eat and did not scold anyone. However, no one understood it without making it Arya.

A similar example can be seen in Nawalparasi, a district in Dakshin Sandh of Palpa district. On the highway from Narayanghat to Butwal, there used to be 'Aroong Khola' and a small market of the same name. Now that market has grown and become big and Aroong Khola has also turned into Arun Khola. While passing that road, I have seen that Arun Khola has taken the place of Aroong Khola on the signboard there after a few years. Like Are, Aroong is a Magar language word, which means odan in Nepali. Experts say that it is called 'Aroong' because it flows through a place like Odan which consists of three rivers flowing south from East Palpa. What is the justification and necessity of making the Arun of the food?

If you hear the name of a long-standing village, it may not make sense. The reason it seems like that is not because of their lack of meaning, but because of the limited knowledge and narrow vision of those who understand it. Scholarly writer Krishna Prakash Shrestha has written a book called 'Sthananam Kosh', in which the names and descriptions of various places in the country have been given. In the preface of the dictionary published by the then government Prajna Pratishthan in the year 2044, he writes, '...place names are certainly not without meaning, although it is difficult to determine their meaning. Any place name indicates the geographical location or some historical, cultural, religious, ethnic, social etc. fact related to that place. .''

Therefore, if you don't understand it, the work of changing, changing, and correcting the place name that has been going on from tradition is not only unreasonable, but it also becomes a fatal work of erasing history. Because the poet Madhav Ghimire writes in the aforementioned dictionary, 'The name of any place has its own history and the history of the country and the country's inhabitants are also connected with that history.' Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha has written, 'The development of human civilization helps to establish the name of a place. In fact, any place name carries the history of art, literature, culture, language, geography, knowledge, science and tradition that is connected with the human civilization there.'' However, that statement of his can probably be applied only in the case of rose flower . As mentioned above, it does not apply to the history of culture, language and tradition. Because after going beyond the scent of roses, the use of names becomes a sensitive subject.

This article is not the result of any detailed research. Based on personal observations and conversations with some people, I have expressed only what is in my mind. However, even from a single study, it can be clearly seen that a strong and aggressive trend is prevailing in naming or changing the name of the place. That trend that matters ractical or syrygraphs and cultures, and the Hindu Devadevi to join the foreign tradition and cultivation of Ramanan and Rahabs to the refor of the reforganization of every word. Such urges are not customized by keeping it by keeping it with a 'major' prefix on the constitution as a prefix, culture, culture, cultural, and speech. The belief that a country named Nepal has been created by every caste and community, it is up to it. & Nbsp;

is therefore a panic, a lot of things in the name is kept.