Like a lost storyteller, place names tell the story of the time they lived in - a long, long time ago.... In fact, place names are our intangible heritage, where language, culture, history and the entire knowledge system are preserved. Place names, which also represent collective identity, have their own rhythms of origin and changing forms.

From a cultural-historical lens, the glory stories and intertwining stories of place-names appear to be full of mystery . The stories, legends and myths of places, i.e. ‘people’, are those timeless memories, which become touching narratives of days gone by and are imprinted in memory . The journey of places is also bright, dark, bustling and deserted like a ghat like a person’s life . They remain alive in a unique period of time .

New stories keep being born in the ‘locations’ of time-tooth . To read and understand places, one must enter the pages of centuries-old legends and stories, where history and anecdotes reside in their souls . And, place-names are timeless stories of the existence and non-existence of humans, which tell the story of their own history, culture, civilization and human society .

People are always filled with surprises about names . They keep saying – What is in a name? Actually, everything is in a name – from culture to coexistence. Place-names are constantly intertwined with the footprints of people. Along with this, the civilizations developed by people also travel. Therefore, the story of place-name etymology is imprinted with the art, culture, language, geography, knowledge and history of people.

Every place name is inextricably linked to its historical and cultural identity. Therefore, place is a social, political constructive force and a place of history, identity and culture.

All points on the earth, i.e. places, have their own existence-narrative. Botanist Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha dwells on place-names and their existence. ‘The North Pole is one place and the South Pole is another.’ The peak of Mount Everest is also a place,' Tirtha Bahadur has written, 'not only on the surface, but scientists have determined every point on the earth's surface with mathematical values ​​of latitude and longitude.'

However, a long cycle of human civilization must occur for a place name to be formed. 'Every place has its own mathematics of latitude and longitude, but not every place has a name,' says Tirtha Bahadur.

There is a book that discusses place names - Krishna Prakash Shrestha's 'Sthannam Kosh', which tells the story of more than a thousand places in Nepali culture and history, from architecture to cultural monuments. The place names in the book shed light on the historical, cultural, religious, ethnological, and social facts of the indigenous tribes of each place. According to the book

, place names emerge from different vernaculars in different eras. Krishna Prakash writes, ‘Over time, place names become corrupted in ways that are unrecognizable due to differences in pronunciation, and it is difficult to even find the origin of their origin.’ The book

says, ‘It is necessary to analyze and interpret place names on a linguistic basis.’ Krishna Prakash analyzes place names on the basis of memory, linguistic, religious, socio-historical, ethnological, etc. ‘The sources of place names in Nepal can be mainly divided into two parts. In the northern part of the country, place names related to the Tibeto-Burmese language family are found in the majority, while in the southern part, place names related to the Indo-Pali language family are abundant.’

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Cultural scholar Bhogiraj Chamling considers place names as the ‘archive’ of human settlement. How? For example, there are names in and around Kathmandu that end in the letter ‘n’ – Chhyasing (Kavre), Langtang (Rasuwa), Bungtang (Nuwakot), Chhaling (Kathmandu), Khangsang (Dolakha), Selang (Sindhupalchowk), Tumling

(Sankhuwasabha), Letang (Morang), Sotang (Solukhumbu), Homtang (Bhojpur), Bajhang (Bajhang). There are countless such place names and these are related to the early Kirats. ‘This area was first inhabited by the Kirats, that time is from prehistoric times, long before the historical period. Such place names are very important evidence to reach this conclusion,’ says Bhogiraj.

Bhogiraj has studied that place names are also ‘archives’ of stories related to people’s migration and history. How? Like ‘Katunje’ and ‘Golma’. Katunje is in Sindhupalchowk and Dhading. And, Katunje is also in Okhaldhunga and Udayapur. The Thulung Rais consider Katunje in Okhaldhunga to be the place where the souls of their dead ancestors reside. Thulung Rai says that many of their ancestors died here while traveling east from Kathmandu. In memory of that, they have considered Katunje sacred as a place to keep the departed souls. ‘The presence of Katunje names in Sindhupalchowk, Dhading and Okhaldhunga means that the Kirat Rai migrated from Kathmandu to eastern Nepal at some point in history,’ says Bhogiraj.

In the Mundum of the Kirat Rai, there is a description of their ancestors migrating from other places like Minapongkha Halkambu, Niyama, Wasepkha Wamakha and settling in the present-day locations of Nepal and eastern Nepal.’ Bhogiraj believes that these places are probably beyond the geography of Nepal, possibly as far as China and Siberia. ‘These Mundum place names seem to be almost consistent with what genetic science, archaeology, anthropological and linguistic studies are saying about the spread of human ancestors around the world,’ says Bhogiraj.

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Place-names are time-indicating (e.g. Nayabazar), surface-indicating (e.g. Tallo Swarad), shape-indicating (e.g. Sanothimi), color-indicating (e.g. Kaligandaki), number-indicating (e.g. Terhathum). Place-names are also established by water, vegetation, history, religion, political location.

The place is the same, but it is called by different names in different periods of time. For example, let's discuss 'Panauti' for a moment. The name of this specific religious city means misfortune in Hindi - inauspicious, unfortunate, inauspicious. Panauti, located in the northern part of the Mahabharata mountain range, has been called by different names at different times – ‘Purnamati’, ‘Ashmapur’, ‘Purnavati’, ‘Punyavati’, ‘Panavati’, ‘Panchal’, ‘Panchal Desh’, Punyavatipuri’, ‘Palanti’, ‘Panati’, ‘Panauti Gram’, ‘Panauti’. Legend says that the Panchal Desh of Prince Mahasattva is Punyavati and the name Panauti is a corruption of this. There is a story in Buddhist literature that Mahasattva saved the lives of a hungry tigress and her cub by feeding her blood and flesh.

The Tibetan language Jhomolungma (Chomolungma) became ‘Sagarmatha’ in Nepali and ‘Everest’ in English in the 20th century. The same place was called by different names in different languages. Just as ‘Kathmandu’ became ‘Yen’ in Newa, Patan became ‘Yal’ and Banepa became ‘Bhot’. In Sanskrit, Shrikhandapur became ‘Khadpu’ in Nepali, Roshmati became ‘Rosi’. Just as ‘Thambahil’ in Nepali became Thamel through corruption.

Writer Vasant Thapa thinks— Unknowingly, without knowing or out of ignorance, people make a good name bad and even if there is no wrong intention, the same name comes into use. ‘What is scary is that nowadays, people are deliberately spoiling names with wrong intentions, the dominant culture spoils names without scrutinizing them,’ says Vasant, ‘interpreting names in their own way is bad intention.’

Place-names are not just ‘names’, they also tell their ‘history’. In the Kathmandu Valley, a place is named not only on the basis of its cultural-religious significance, but also on the basis of its geographical location.

In the ever-changing cycle of time, the names of many places in the city have become corrupted over time, but cultural expert Suresh Kiran feels that even though the geographical form of a place changes over time, its name keeps its old form alive. 'If the name changes along with the geographical form, there is a fear that the history and identity of the place will also disappear.'

Let's look at some examples. A famous place where the old geographical form can be identified by its place name is the current 'New Road'. Its old name is Pako, Pukhuldyang. 'Pukhuldyang' means the edge of the pond! In Nepali (Newa), 'Pa' means a slope, and 'Ko' means 'under'. 'Pako' means a place under a slope. There was a field where persimmons were grown on the slope, which was called ‘Fasikyab (Farsibari)’. The neighborhood next to the then Ranjana Hall is still called Fasikyab. There was once a pond in the ‘Pako’ neighborhood, and since it was located on the bank of it, it was called ‘Pukhuldyang’. There is no pond now, and the Nepal Bank Limited building has been built on top of it.

The place where the Armed Police Force headquarters is located under Swayambhu is currently called Halchowk. However, in reality, it is not a chowk, but ‘Holchwa’. ‘Chwa’, which means tip, has now been changed to ‘chowk’ everywhere.

The old name of Indrachowk is ‘Vanga’. Some also call it ‘Vanga’. Archaeologists estimate that at one time this place was a confluence of the two rivers Bagmati and Bishnumati. Dobhan is called ‘Hwangah’ in Newar language. The word ‘Hwangah’ itself was later corrupted to become ‘Vangaah’. According to the rules of linguistics, the letter ‘G’ becomes ‘Dh’ after adding a vowel. Therefore, ‘Vangaah’ must have also become ‘Vangaah’ later. However, it is now called ‘Indrachok’ instead of ‘Vangaah’, whereas there is neither a statue of Indra nor a temple here! The word ‘Vangaah’ also tells its old form.

The old name of Maitighar Mandal is ‘Phibwa Khyah’. On the way from Mandal to the headquarters of the Nepali Army, there is a temple of Azima, which is called ‘Phibwa Azima’. The same Azima’s field was called ‘Phibwa Khyah’. Currently, Phibwa Azima is inside the army fort. The place was called ‘Maitighar’ after the Ajima Chaur was also destroyed.

‘Shankhamul’ is a popular village on the banks connecting Kathmandu and Lalitpur. Earlier, there were many springs on the banks of that river. Because of the many springs, this place was called ‘Asankhya Mul’. ‘Asankhya Mul’ became ‘Sankhya Mul’ and ‘Sankhya Mul’ became ‘Shankhamul’, where a cement conch statue has also been built. This is a funny story in terms of place names.

The correct name of ‘Chobhar’ located south of Kathmandu is ‘Chwabahal’. ‘Chwa’ means ‘mountain’, meaning ‘the place on the mountain’. However, now ‘Chwabahal’ has been changed to the meaningless ‘Chobhar’.

‘The tradition of considering high mountains as sacred places is found not only in Nepal but also in many places abroad.’ The four main mountains of the Kathmandu Valley are – Phuchwa, Dhilachava, Sipuchava and Jamachhwa. ‘Chwa’ means – peak. Those names were given to those places in terms of geographical shape even before any religious-cultural sect came,’ says Suresh Kiran, ‘but now Phuchwa has been named ‘Phulchoki’, Sipuchava ‘Shivapuri’, Jamachhwa ‘Nagarjuna’ and Dhilachava ‘Champadevi’.’

Some people had launched a campaign to change the name of ‘Handigaun’ to ‘Harigram’. They said – the name of Harigram has become Handigaun due to corruption. However, that campaign could not find concrete form. Architect Sudarshan Raj Tiwari's book 'Handigaun Prachin Nepal Rajdhani' says that the ancient name of the Lichchhavi settlement Handigaun was Andiprung, which changed to Andigram and Handigaun.

Similar-sounding names also exist with different meanings. For example, the names Tukucha in Kathmandu and Tukuche in Mustang sound similar. 'However, the existing differences between the Newari language and the Thakali language reveal that there is a big difference in the meaning of the two place names,' says Shrestha. 'Tukucha means a small sugarcane stream, while Tukuche means a river where salt and grain were traded.'

Now let's briefly discuss the place names of Madhesh. Writer Chandrakishore believes that the names of villages in Madhesh are not just geographical identities—they are a brief document of history, sociology, power structure, memory, and culture. He says, ‘In Madhesh, there are also names based on caste, tribe, and profession, which reflect the ethnic structure here. There are also names linked to migration, displacement, and resettlement.’ There are some names that remind us of individuals, lineages, kings, Rana, Birtawal, and landlords. Such as Chandranigahapur, Mahendranagar, Tribhuvan Nagar.... There are also religious and mythological names—Shivapur, Bishnupur, Ramnagar, Devpur, Mahadev Patti....

In the opinion of anthropologist Suresh Dhakal, place names are not just geographical identities, they also create specific socio-political-cultural meanings. ‘When I reached Purvipalpa (now a hilly, densely populated Magar village in eastern Nawalparasi), Then it became clear – how were the Magar names of the surrounding places corrupted?’

Suresh’s study revealed – the Magar ‘Aare Bhanjyang’ was called ‘Arya Bhanjyang’ and ‘Arung Khola’ was called ‘Arun Khola’. In the Magar language, water was called ‘D’, so the names of the rivers in the Magar region had ‘D’ after them – like ‘Marsyangdi’, but later it was corrupted and started being called/written as ‘Marsyangdi’.

‘In this way, not only the names were changed, their historical connection and identity (history) with that area were also gradually disappearing. Some important and interesting facts about the Newar culture, identity and history of the Kathmandu Valley are getting blurred, as the names of the places here are changing. Place names are therefore also a source of historical memory,’ says Suresh.