origins of Names of some imp cities

Tywin Lannister

Why the city of Tiruchirapalli is known as Tiruchirapalli ?

Why Noida is known as Noida ?

Why Bengaluru is known as Bengaluru ?

Why Faisalabad is known as Faisalabad ?

Why Dhaka is known as Dhaka ?

You can say it is a weird hobby but I know the origin/etymology of more than 400 cities of the Indian subcontinent and central Asia which I think most people do not know.

Every village, town, city and country in the world has some history behind the naming. Whether anyone is aware or not every entity has it's “etymology”.

Read till the end. I bet you will enjoy.

Nagpur : The city is named after “Nag river “ which flows from the city. It originates from the Ambazari lake in Nagpur and at Panmara village it joins Kanhan river which is a tributary of Wainganga river. Wainganga is the largest tributary of Pranhita river which eventually falls into Godavari.

Bengaluru : In 9th century during Western Ganga dynasty (before Hoysalas) it was a small settlement for the guards and fighters for the city capital. It was known as “Bengawal Uru” means area of guards in Halegannada (old Kannada) which eventually deformed to Bengaluru.

Edit : Some others claim that it was known as “Bendha Kal uru” which means city of boiled beans but this information is available on some unreliable websites but not in texts hence I didn't mention it earlier.

Mysuru : Earlier it was called a “Mahisuru" which was named after a demon called Mahisasur or Mahisuru who can assume the forms of both a human and a buffalo. The British called it Mysore for ease of speaking but in 2005 the Dharam Singh governement changed it to Mysuru.

Chennai : City was named after the Chenna Keshav Temple which was situated in the frontier of a big locality. In Tamil Chenni means “face” or frontier. This temple was the pinpoint of the 3 surrounding villages.

Chennai pattnam village was the pinpoint near the fort St. George along with Mylapore and Triplicane therefore this port city was came to be known as Chennai.

Earlier the city was known as Madraspattnam because of a small village in the North of St. George. Madras came by Madhu-Ras (because of plenty of sugarcane fields in the village) and pattnam or pattinam is the tamil word for “village” or “city” or “port village”.

Mumbai : It was earlier known as Bombay which was the anglicised name of “ Bom Baim” in Portugese language. The Portugese first settled in the city and called it as Bom Baim which means good little bay.

In the late 20th century the local government changed it to “Mumbai” which is based on the temple of Mumba Devi - patron goddess of Koli tribes.

Allahabad : Before the 16th century it was named Prayag which means place of offerings in Sanskrit.

In 16th century when Mughal emperor Akbar founded the Din-e-Ilahi religion, he renamed the city as “Ilahabad” meaning “place of god” which was later changed to Allahabad by the British.

Lucknow : Until the 11th century the city was known as Lakhshmanvati which was degraded to Lucknow due to the influence of Islamic culture in the city.

Lakhshamanvati > Lakhanvati > Lakhnauti > Lakhnaut > Lakhnow > Lucknow

Varanasi : The city is named after two eternal rivers of the city Varuna and Asi (Apart from Ganges). Asi falls into the Ganga near Assi or Asi Ghat.

Earlier this was known as Kashi or Kasi which means the Luminous city : seat of learning.

Bhatinda: This city was inhabitated by the Bhati or Bhatti rajputs of area. Bhati or Bhatti caste specialises in making swords and armoury in the furnace called ‘Bhatti’ in Hindi and Punjabi. They gradually went to capture a large portion of land below Sutlej river and named the inhabitated area as Bhatinda.

Legendary North African traveller Ibn-E-Batuta mentioned this city as 'Batrind' in his iconic texts.

Goa : During Mahabharata and Mahajanpada era this locality was known as Govarashtra. Govarashtra was called because of plenty of cowherds. It was also known as the country of cowheards in the grass rich delta of Mandavi and Juvari rivers.

Even today some regional parties and institutions of state have the prefixes Go, Gov or Gow like the Gomantak party.

Agra : During the Mahabharata era this small human settlement was known as “Agravena” which means borderor the frontier of the forest. BeyondAgravena lied a very dense forest as suggested by various texts.

Noida : Noida is basically an acronym of “New Okhla Industrial Development Authority”. The city was created under the UP Industrial Area Development Act, 1976 by the initiatives of Sanjay Gandhi. The city has the highest per capita income in the whole National Capital Region.

Gurgaon : During the Mahabharata era this area was known as Gurugram because the school of Guru Dronacharya was situated here. The princes of the royal family of Hastinapur and Indraprastha (Delhi) would visit this place to learn warfare.

It was gradually distorted to Gurugaon than Gurgaon but last year the Haryana government changed its name to Gurugram.

Like Noida, HUDA city centre of yellow line metro is also an abbreviation. HUDA stands for Haryana Urban Development Authority.

Moradabad : City was named after Murad Baksh. He was one of the four sons of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz and who was executed by his brother Aurangzeb.

Dehradun : It is the mixture of ‘Dehra’ and ‘Doon’.

Dehra or Dehri means gate or threshold”. This place was the gateway to the Doon valley and therefore was named Dehradoon which eventually changed to Dehradun.

Some other sources say that there was a Sikh guru's camp (Dera or Dehra in regional language) before the Doon valley therefore the inhabitated place was named as Deradoon or Deradoon.

Indore : Named after a temple “Indreshwar Mahadev” founded by Raja Indra Singh on his way towards Ujjaini in the 16th century. This temple exists today in the Hathipala area of Juni Indore on the banks of Khan river.

When Islamic invaders were moving beyond Narmada it was distorted as Indreshwar > Indreshar > Indrore. The Marathas under Bajirao defeated every opponent in their march towards Delhi, and reorganised the city under Bajirao's general Malhar Rao Holkar. He called the city “Indur”. Even today some Maharashtra-bound buses from Indore have boards of “Indur”.

The British were incapable of pronouncing ‘I’ and ‘u’ therefore they called it Indore similar to how Kanpur was called ‘Cawnpore’ and Alipur was called ‘Alipore’.

Kota : A small settlement and a big fort (today's Kota fort or Kota Garhi) was developed by a Bheel warrior named “Kotya” 800 years ago on the banks of Chambal river hence city came to be known as Kota.

Faisalabad (Pakistan) : It is the 3rd most populous city of Pakistan after Karachi and Lahore.

Earlier this was known as Lyallpur and was the first planned city of undivided India. The city Lyallpur was named in honour of the then Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Sir James B Lyall, for his services in the colonisation of the lower Chenab valley.

His surname Lyall was suffixed with "pur" which in old Sanskrit language means inhabitancy or city.

In the late 1970s, the Government of Pakistan changed the name of the city from Lyallpur to Faisalabad (meaning City of Faisal), in honour of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who made several financial contributions to Pakistan.

Jabalpur : The city was named after sage Jaabli of the Ramayana era.

The present name is distorted one which came as Jaablipuram > Jaablpuri >> Jabalpore > Jabalpur

Rajkot : The city was founded by Vibhaji Jadeja in 1610 AD. It was named Rajkot as Raj means ‘King’ and Kot means ‘Fort’ in the Sanskrit Language.

Ahmedabad : The city was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 AD and hence was known as Ahmedabad which means “inhabited by Ahmed”.

Before Ahmedabad this small inhabitated village was known as Karnawati.

Chandigarh : The city is named after the famous temple of goddess “Chandi Devi” situated in the Chandimandir area on the outer Himalyan Expressway.

Panchkula : ‘Panch’ means five and ‘Kula’ means canals. Ealier a village but now a big City was named after the 5 irrigation canals originating from the Ghaghar-Hakra river flowing through here.

Shimla : Settlement was named after the temple of goddess Shyamla(Devi Kaali). When the British came here in the early 19th century, they named it Simla for ease of pronunciation.

Patna : City was named after famous Patil or Patli trees which grows here plentiful. This tree appears on the state emblem of the Bihar. This tree was also the reason for the city called as Patliputra in ancient times.

Some scholars also believe that Patna was named after the ancient temple of Patan Devi which is currently situated near the Gulzar Bagh Mandi area of city.

Bikaner : The city was established in 1488 AD by Rao Bika therefore city was named as Bikaner. Rao Bika was the oldest son of Rao Jodha (founder of Jodhpur city).

Jaipur : The city was founded by Sawai Raja Jai Singh Dwitiya in early 18th century therefore as “Jaipur”. The city was designed by architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya.

Before the visit of Prince Edward 7th and Queen Victoria, King Sawai Ram ordered the entire city to be painted pink therefore city is known as the Pink city.

Tiruchirapalli : According to Tamil and Telugu scholars Tiruchirapalli came from 3 words “Tiru, Chiruta or Chinna or chira & Palli”.

Tiru means Holy, Chiruta or Chinna or chira means Little and Palli means village or town hence this beautiful settlement on the banks of Cauvery river was named as Tiruchirapalli.

Dhaka : Dhaka was named after the famous Dhakeswari shrine and the Dhak trees in the area. Butea monosperma is the botanical name of the tree. The Dhaak tree is predominant in the Ganga Delta and known as Palash in India.

Another town Plassey (Battle of Plassey fame) is also named after this tree. It was known as village “Palashi” due to the abundant Palash trees in the village.

Guwahati : It was earlier known as “Guwa Haat” which means the selling spot or Haat or the market of abundant Guwa (Areca nuts ).

Areca nuts are known as “Supari/Sopari” in UP, MP, Bihar and Delhi which is the most important ingredient of delicious Paan.

---

Here I am restricting myself otherwise answer will be too long. I hope you enjoyed.