As a welcome digression from heavy words, heres a place which I know pretty well.Alwar: District in North Rajasthan, better known for its milk cake and extreme cold. The song 'Yeh Bandhan' from the re incarnation movie Karan Arjun was shot here.
I used to sell Tata pick ups some years ago, and in this capacity was managing the dealership in Alwar. It was on some trip to some nondescript village that I was recited the story of the origin of the name 'Alwar'. Truly fascinating. Hark..
It was earlier called Ulwar after the Ulwa river on whose banks the town resided. As far as I remember there is no trace of Ulwa anymore but it has manifested into the lingua franca. Now during the British Raj, Ulwar and neighbouring regions were provinces paying largesse to the Empress. The royals from each protege used to sit around a round table with the white skin seated at the table's head. The princes were seated in alphabetical order. Under such scheme of things, our Ulwar prince always ended up far away from the epicentre. Hence, he changed the name to Alwar!
I think this is one word origin which is google proof :-)
5 comments:
That's a good one, 666...a real gem rather!! :)
Folklores form such an integral part of a discerning traveler's jaunts......
your "google-proof" challenge led me to do a quick google on this one...am pressed for time right now else wud have done a further research.....what i found was this and nothing was as fascinating as the lore u shared...
"Origin of Name :
The district is known after its headquarters town of Alwar. There are many theories about the derivation of the name Alwar. Cunningham holds that the city derived its name from the Salva tribe and was originally Salwapur, then, Salwar, Halawar and eventually Alwar.According to another school it was known as Aravalpur or the city of Aravali (A hill system dividing Rajasthan roughly into third and two-thirds).Some others hold that city is named after Alaval Khan Mewati. A research conducted during the reign of Maharaja Jey Singh of Alwar revealed that Maharaja Alaghraj, second son of Maharaja Kakil of Amer (old seat of Jaipur state) ruled the area in the eleventh century and his territory extended upto the present city of Alwar. He founded the city of Alpur in 1106 Vikrami samvat(1049 A.D.) after his own name which eventually became Alwar. It was formerly spelt as Ulwar but in the reign of Jey Singh the spelling was changed to Alwar."
thanx for the obscure local trivia :), looks like nothing is google proof :)
Interesting take on the naming of this city/town.
My roommate in JNU was from Alwar.
wow!!
amazing
Just look that the research MOI did, so clearly misses out those exact special details that remain captured in the locals of places!!
till great People like 666 spread the knowledge!!
WOW man!! real gud, tks!!
BTW..
your entry , I am sure ..will make this GOOGLE-able!!
:)
@ moi: hmm.. so the guy was Jai Singh. great effort there. would suggest putting updates in the post rather than putting it in comments. The idea behind comments is to reflect on the post, any content enhancement should directly be appended by editing the post.
@ suramya, jas & abhishek: thanks
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