The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India

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About the Book:

Ancient geographical is an essential adjunct to history and Nundo Lal Dey's The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India is a major contribution to the subject. In the Dictionary have been included the names of places, both current and metamorphosed in course of time, which usually figure in the historical narratives of ancient and mediaeval India. The work is divided into two parts, Part I dealing with the ancient place-names and Part II about the modern ones. Thus this work provides complete information about the names of places of importance in the history of India.

In the compilation of this compendium of names of places, Dey has not only sought the identification and exact location of places mentioned in the ancient texts and inscriptions but has carefully analyzed the changes and mutilations of original place names. In the Preface, Dey has explained in detail how these changes or mutations are governed by the rules of Prakrit grammar. He has also explained the principal rules about the toponomy of this Dictionary and has shown, in elaborate tables, how mutations of affixes, elisions of non-initial and non-compounded consonants, change of consonants, change of nasals and semivowels, transposition of letters, etc., affected the forms of the place-names. In this painstaking research work, Dey has not only utilized the main Sanskrit and Prakrit sources of information but has also consulted the sources foreign and the works of the earlier scholars. The names of places have been arranged in a strictly alphabetical order and all the relevant references and authorities have been supplied for the statements requiring support.

An outstanding reference-book of great value, the Dictionary should be of immense help in facilitating the work of the research-scholars, teachers of Indian history and Sanskrit and linguists. In a specially prepared map of ancient India, Dey has shown the location of many of the important places which should prove useful to the scholars.