By Vinayak Khedekar

he etymology of several villages and places in Goa is a connotation of the historical, geographical and cultural aspects, if they are studied in their real sense with an unprejudiced mind and by applying the science of logic.

On one side it is a denomination of the local language and on the other it unravels the socio-cultural consciousness of the society living in that area. The archival material may be inappropriate for deriving a particular conclusion.

A significant example is cited to prove the above statement. The village known as Khandepar is situated in the Phonda Taluka. The same is reflected on a copper plate as Khatteigram (khatta - sour, scrap or discontented, graam - village.) Considering the natural and environmental aspects none of the above meanings seem to be plausible. In Konkni, khaandi is used for the number twenty. A river flows on one side of this village and there are 20 paar to cross this river (paar - a path under the water, natural or created). There are 20 such paar and some of them where used by the villagers until the last decade of the 20th century. The elderly people of the village pointed out the location of these paar and this researcher tried to walk on one such paar. A further four paar were observed when a person walked through the flowing water at the indicated point. (1990)

A few names of these paar where also determined at the time of the field study. Like Washeli – the name of the place, Taar - point of crossing by canoe, Chor - thieves, Devte – goddess, etc. It may not be an exact 20. If anything is more than the anticipated, the idiom used is – Khandibhar - even for children.

The village and place names are reflected in folklore by way of legends, idioms, proverbs, riddles, folktales, etc. Their origin or description is to be verified in the absolute indigenous context, mainly in their own dialect and environmental condition. Few such names are: Phonda ‘Phone’–Phond, a pit, an area that looks like a natural pit. Kankon, where Kan – jungle in Kannada and con - corner, the jungle on a corner of Goa. Kelshi, where Kel – banana tree, a place of banana trees, (Portuguese name) Cavelossim. The original Murgao became Marmagoa but this area is mostly a sandy area. Mur - sediment, ganv – village. So Murgao seems to be proper.

The Portuguese have changed the names of several villages but their spelling was nearer to the original name like Chodan – Chorao, Diwadi – Diwar, etc. Harmal became Arambol, Karmali – Carambolim, Hadphadem – Arpora, etc. Besides, the intonation of Portuguese alphabets also corrupted the origin of a number of names like Quepem, Mapuca, Sanquelim, etc, (incidentally, my name was spelt as Vinaica boto Quedecar). Yet, another significant aspect is that the pronunciation of the word is accurately translated like Kamat in Goa, all the times articulated as Kamti and hence became Kamotim in Portuguese. (In South India it is Kamath, Kini - Quenim).

Interestingly some Taluka names are based on the number of villages like Tiswadi (30), Bardez (12), Sasasti (66), Sattari (70), and Bhatagram (32). Another aspect also not to be ignored is that while writing any name on stone, copper, paper, it was nearer to the standardised version, claiming that its pronunciation appeared locally, is corrupted.

In the history book of Goa by Yeshwant Fondapa Naik Danayat, in 1873 the names of Mahals ie talukas are given as follows 1) Tiswadi – (Sanzine – Goa), 2) Bardez prant 3) Sashti prant 4) Phond Mahal (Antruz) 5) Ashtagrahar Mahal 6) Balli Mahal 7) Chandravadi Mahal 8) Kakode Mahal, 9) Kankon prant 10) Bhatagram 11) Sattari and 12) Pernem. Today there are eleven revenue Tahasils. Naturally the above names of Mahals have been given by the rulers.

The etymology of several Goan names is to be established with the help of the local language. A fact that should not be discarded is that the local language is very much influenced by Kannada in the South, Marathi in the North, Sanskrit in general, the official language of the rulers and the words from the dialect of the earliest dwellers to this land ie Kulmi, Gawda, Kulwadi, Kharvis, etc.