Misspelled names of Ganga river valley towns - 1764

Former names are interesting as they tell us a lot about historical and political changes during that period. But what is more curious about history is the mispronunciation and misspellings by foreigners. Some of them are easily recognizable (Ganges, Jubbulpore, Benares, Cashmere, Oude etc.) while others have totally bizarre spellings which doesn't really go with any etymology. This post shall lists out some of the names as appeared on a 1764 French map of India, with focusing only on the Ganga river valley.

The Ganga river valley has been one of the most densely populated areas of India covering states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh. The names are listed below:

1) Ecbarpur (Akbarpur - Faridabad district, Haryana)
2) Gehanabad (Shahjahanabad or Delhi)
3) Matura (Mathura)
4) Felipour (Phulpur - Dholpur district, Rajasthan)
5) Dolpour (Dholpur, Rajasthan)
6) Scander (Sikandra - Agra district, Uttar Pradesh)
7) Gualor (Gwalior)
8) Halebak or Halabas (Allahabad or Prayagraj)
9) Sadoul Serail (Saidabad - Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh)
10) Yakodil Sera (Sarai Jagadish - Sant Ravidas Nagar, Uttar Pradesh)
11) Bouraki Sera (Babusarai - Sant Ravidas Nagar, Uttar Pradesh)
12) Baterpour (Bidapur - Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh)
13) Banarou (Benares or Varanasi)
14) Gorumabad (Khurmabad - Rohtas district, Bihar)
15) Sasseran (Sasaram, Bihar)
16) Beharpur (Bihar Sharif - Nalanda district, Bihar)
17) Halve Sera (Arwal district, Bihar)
18) Rotas (Rohtas district, Bihar)
19) Acerat (Haldharpur Arazi - Murshidabad district, West Bengal)
20) Cassim Basar (Kasim Bazaar - Murshidabad district, West Bengal)
21) Mocsudabat (Murshidabad)
22) Nudia (Nadia district, West Bengal)
23) Ougli (Hugli)
24) Chandernagor (Chandannagar - Hugli district)
25) Colcota (Kolkata)

These were not the former names but just French way of interpreting the names. The local lingua franca had them spelled the same way how it is sounded now. And as a matter of fact, most local names never changed much (except for extremely drastic name changes such as Madras to Chennai, Shahjehanabad to Delhi, Pataliputra to Patna or Azimabad etc.). This excludes the Vedic and medieval names that has changed significantly through ages, but the places that got renamed during the modern era (post 16th century) remains still in use more or less.

The map here is a recreation of a French map by Jacques Nicolas Bellin sketched in 1764.


©SagarSrivastava


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