July 31, 2007

Tangua Haor, Char Kamrangi, Kantaji Temple

Newspapers often write Tanguar Haor and Kamrangir Char. Some even write Mirersarai and Fakirerpool. Many old documents have the first two names as Tangua Haor or Bil or even Beel and Char Kamrangi. And the last two names as Mirsarai and Fakirapool, dropping the Bangla genitive form -er or -r. Tanguar is the genetive form of Tangua (of Tangua, the name of the place), so is Kamrangir of Kamrangi (of Kamrangi, the name of the [once] char land). Is it extremely necessary to retain the -er or -r of Bangla in English? Tangua Haor and Char Kamrangi sound natural in English. A 1913 railway map has Char Kamrangi written in Bangla. Kamrangir Char might be a corruption of Char Kamrangi. A 1995 map of the Bangladesh river systems prepared by the government shows Tangua Beel, without the Bangla genitive. The GEOnet Names Server has both Charkamrangi and Kamrangirchar, but it has only Tangua Bil, and no Tanguar.

What is known as Kantajir Mandir in Bangla is written Kantaji Temple (not Kantajir Temple, which is also prevalent) in English. The Banglapedia and the Wikipedia have Kamrangir Char. But both of them have Kantaji Temple, not Kantajir Temple. Another entry in the Banglapedia has Kantaji's temple (note the lower case t that temple begins with, in this case).

Mirsarai (or Mir Serai?) and Fakirapool are as prevalent as Mirersarai and Fakirerpool.

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