Sir,

I wish to draw the attention of our Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) officials concerned including the incumbent DC and his predecessors as to whether they are aware of the difference in the meaning of ‘Puram’ and ‘Nagara’?

Puram means Extension, Mohalla or Layout. Example: Chamarajapuram, Lakshmipuram, Saraswathipuram, Chamundipuram, Vidyaranyapuram etc. Nagara means City. Example: Chamarajanagara, Ramanagara etc.

As a matter of fact our Maharajas had every proper foresight and knowledge and therefore during their regimes they had given the above nomenclature to various extensions in Mysore city.

Nevertheless in one of my letters “Change of Names – A purposeless exercise” was published in Star of Mysore dated  Oct. 31, 2014, wherein I have ridiculed the idea of changing the names of cities with the local vernacular pronunciation phonetic effect.

At this juncture it would be quite appropriate to change the suffixes of ‘Nagars’ like Ramakrishnanagar, Vivekanandanagar, Kuvempunagar etc., as Ramakrishnapuram, Vivekanandapuram and so on. Added to the above, the correct English phonetic spelling structure for Mysore should be Mysooru (Mysooru Mitra) and not Mysuru.

Therefore, it is high time for our authorities concerned to contemplate on my above suggestions.

– T.R. Vijayaraghavan, Retd. Profesor of English, Mysuru, 24. 3. 2017