Indian Journal of Regional Science

Place-names provide the most useful geographical reference system in the world and hints about the origin of villages as embedded in local legend, history, mythology, ecology and epic stories. The South Tripura District is a cultural mosaic of varying groups viz, Bengali, Mog, Bodo and Chakma each shaping their own cultural landscape and naming their social space based on perception of their immediate physical and socio-cultural ethos. A cursory look at place names reveals marked influence of physical, socio-cultural attributes and of recent Governmental policy. It is for all these reasons that an effort has been made to study place names hitherto terrae incognitae and their changing dimensions with respect to geographical phenomena. While analysing, each place name is examined, meaning and origin of etymology traced, cross checked by field visit, published books consulted with and then only the place names are categorised in different groups. An attempt is made to enlist them according to their prefixes and sufixes. Out of total 100 per cent villages in the study area, 43 per cent names are found to be associated with natural features like Vegetation, Hydrological, Animal or Birds and Topographical layout. Roughly 51.85 per cent names are witnessed to have been shaped by socio-cultural attributes, community and settlement characteristics. 5.62 per cent village names could not be linked with any physical or socio-cultural aspects and therefore are placed under Miscellaneous place names. These village names are likely to be the result of distorted word from generation to generation, that changed the very meaning and pronunciation of the place names. Profound impact of tribal culture is reflected in the village names associated with Mog and Bodo Tribal community, who are early settlers in the study area. The district bears imprints of evolving place names with imperceptive trickling of migrants in the post-Independence period from present day Bangladesh