Etymology of Train Names

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NamedNamed trainstrains onon IndianIndian RailwaysRailways Indian trains have been given names since British days • Imperial Indian Mail • Frontier Mail • Grand Trunk Express • Blue Mountain Express • Deccan Queen • Boat Mail These are a few of the famous named trains of India, running since before Independence. TodayToday There are more than 400 pairs of named trains on IR today. Names of trains are based on - Geographical regions - Hills and mountains - Rivers - Religious significance - Historical personalities - Historical places - Indian history - Literary works - National parks and gardens - Mahatma Gandhi - Industry - Miscellaneous GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- STATESSTATES GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- STATESSTATES • AP, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, HP, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, TN, UP, Uttaranchal, WB • The name Gujarat is derived from Gujjar Rashtra or Gujjar nation. The Gujjar clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Hun invasions. The name of the tribe was Sanskritized to "Gurjara", from which the word Gujarat is derived. • The name of the state of Haryana has been derived from its ancient inhabitants Abhirayana, which got changed to Ahirayana over a period of time, and to present day Haryana. The name “Abhira” means fearless, the honour they earned after the Battle of the Mahabharata GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- STATESSTATES • The name Jharkhand comes from the Sanskrit word “Jharikhanda”, which is the ancient name of the region's dense forest. • Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nadu, meaning elevated land. Karu nadu may also be read as Karu (black) and nadu (region), as a reference to the black cotton soil found in the Bayaluseeme region of Karnataka. • The name Keralam may stem from imperfect Malayalam fusing “kera” (coconut tree) and “alam” (land or location). Kerala may also represent the Classical Tamil “chera alam” (Land of the Cheras). • The name Orissa/ Odisha originated from Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt (Angul, Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Balangir) of modern Orissa. GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- STATESSTATES • Land (Nadu) of the Tamil people is the literal meaning of the name of the state. By the third century BC, the ethnic identity of Tamils has been formed as a distinct group. The name comes from tam-mizh 'self-speak', or 'one's own speech'. • The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC. Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Vanga or Anga, which came from the word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- OTHERSOTHERS • Andaman may be derived from Hanuman. • Bundelkhand - Hurdeo Singh, a Rajput prince of the Gurjra tribe, was expelled from the Kshatriya caste for marrying a Bourdi slave-girl. He formed a new clan known as the Bourdillas, or “Sons of the Slave”, thus giving the country its present name of Boundilacund or Bundelcund. • The land of the Chola dynasty was called Cholamandalam in Tamil, literally translated as “the realm of the Cholas”, from which Coromandel is derived. The Coromandel Coast is the name given to the southeastern coast of the Indian peninsula. • Gondwana is a region named after the Gondi people who live there (though they can also be found in other parts of India). The name of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland was derived from Gondwana, because some of the earliest rock formations of this continent were first investigated in part of the region. GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- OTHERSOTHERS • Kachchh literally means something which intermittently becomes wet and dry a reference to the Rann of Kachchh, a shallow wet-land which is submerged during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons. The same word is also used in the languages of Sanskrit origin for a tortoise, and also garments to be worn while having a bath. • The name Malabar is thought to be derived from the Malayalam word Mala (Hill) and the Persian word Bar (Kingdom) or the Arabic word Bar (port). • The term “Marathwada” has its origin in the word “Bara-hatti-vada (region of people with twelve elephants, i.e. wealthy people)”. • The word "Rayalseema" means the land ruled by Sri Krishnadevaraya. Rayalseema was the original home of Eastern Chalukyas. GEOGRAPHICALGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONSREGIONS -- OTHERSOTHERS • Telangana literally means "land of the Telugus" and the Telugu language originated here. • Rohilkhand is a region of northwestern Uttar Pradesh on the upper Ganges alluvial plain. The area was made famous by the previous settlement of Rohillas, who were Pathan highlanders of the Yusufzai tribe. They were awarded the region by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir to suppress Rajput uprisings. Roh means mountains and in Pashto Rohilla means mountaineer. • The word Vanchinad means "A land in the shape of a boat". The old state of Travancore had this shape and was the official nickname for it. MOUNTAINSMOUNTAINS ANDAND HILLSHILLS MOUNTAINSMOUNTAINS ANDAND HILLSHILLS • The name Aravalli literally mean “line of peaks”. • Dhauladhar means White Mountain. • Kanchanjanga (Kangchenjunga) means "The Five Treasures of Snows", as it contains five peaks, four of them over 8,450 meters. The treasures represent the five repositories of God, which are gold, silver, gems, grain, and holy books. • The Pothigai (Podhigai) Malai (hill), also known as the Agasthiyar Malai, is in the Ashambu hills, part of the Anaimalai Hills in the Western Ghats of Southern India. Legend says that Sage Agasthya (also written as Agasthiyar) created the Tamil language here. • Sahyadri means “the benevolent mountains”. • The Satpura range, the name of which means “Seven Folds,” forms the watershed between the Narmada and Tapti rivers. HISTORICALHISTORICAL PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES HISTORICALHISTORICAL PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES • Rajmata Ahilyadevi Holkar (1725-1795, ruled 1767-1795) also known as the Philosopher Queen was a Holkar dynasty Queen of the Malwa kingdom. The city of Indore is sometimes called Ahilyanagari in her memory. • Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, popularly known as Ala Hazrat, was a prominent Muslim Alim from Bareilly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. • Amrapali (Ambapalika or Ambapali), was a nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of the republic of Vaishali around 500 BC. Following the Buddha's teachings she became an Arahant. She was of unknown parentage, and received her name because at her birth she was found at the foot of a mango tree in one of the royal gardens in Vaishali. The name, Ambapali or Amrapali, is derived from a combination of two Sanskrit words: "amra", meaning mango, and "pallawa", meaning young leaves or sprouts. • Azimabad was an old name of Patna. Prince Azim-us-Shan, the grandson of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb came as the Governor of Pataliputra in 1703 and renamed it as Azimabad in 1704. HISTORICALHISTORICAL PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES • Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah shifted his capital from Golconda to a nearby site. He fell in love with and married a local Banjara girl known as Bhagmathi or Bhagyavathi, and named his capital after her, Bhagyanagaram. Upon her conversion to Islam, she changed her name to Hyder Mahal and thus the city was named Hyderabad. • Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moinuddin Chishti was born in 1141 and died in 1230. Also known as Gharib Nawaz or “Benefactor of the Poor”, he is the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order. Today, hundreds of thousands of people – Muslims, Hindus, Christians and others, from the Indian sub-continent, and from other parts of the world – assemble at his tomb on the occasion of his Urs (death anniversary). • Kitturu Rani Chennamma (1778 - 1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka. In 1824, 33 years before the 1857 war of independence, she led an armed rebellion against the British in response to the Doctrine of lapse. The resistance ended in her martyrdom and she is remembered today as one of the earliest Indian rulers to have fought for independence. HISTORICALHISTORICAL PERSONALITIESPERSONALITIES • Sanghamitta or Sanghamitra in Sanskrit (whose name means "friend of the Sangha") was the daughter of Emperor Ashoka. Together with Venerable Mahinda, her twin brother, she entered an order of Buddhist monks. The two siblings later went to Sri Lanka to spread the teachings of Buddha. • Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1863 – 1939), was the Maharaja of Baroda from 1875 to 1939, and is notably remembered for reforming

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