Monday, August 10, 2009

Golconda

Aloha friends,

At the outset a hearty welcome to the series of emails that I intend to send to you guys. Like I mentioned in class these mails will focus on vocabulary, grammar and general reading from around the Net. I am also archiving these mails in the form of a Blog: http://cafezika.blogspot.com/

You are welcome to send in your feedback about how useful you find the mails and also any other bits of information that you might want.

Let’s kick-start the series with vocabulary. I thought it might be a good idea to start off with an Indian word/name that has made its way into the English language and what better word to start off than Golconda.

Golconda: (noun)

A source of great wealth

The name Golconda originates from the Telugu words "Golla" meaning shepherd and "Konda" which means hill. (The Golconda Fort itself is located 11 km. from Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh.) In medieval times Golconda was said to be the only place in the world which had diamond mines. Many of the best known diamonds of the world, the Koh-i-noor, the Regent, the Hope diamond etc., are supposed to have been mined here.

Whether these diamonds were indeed mined here or not is not sure but what is sure is that the road from Golconda to outer Hyderabad was a fantastic market selling diamonds, pearls and other gems and was popular all over the world. This was the reason that people associated Golconda with fabulous wealth and why it moved into the English language as a Toponym.

Incidentally there is another Golconda and that is located in Pope County, Illinois in the USA.

Ciao

Gautam
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6 comments:

  1. GauriAugust 11, 2009 at 12:33 AM

    Catchy blog name sir! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nyayapati GautamAugust 11, 2009 at 6:32 AM

    Thank you Gkam. Now hope you like the contents just as well... ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlishaAugust 11, 2009 at 12:10 PM

    In mail, golconda is referred 2 as eponym whereas in blog it has been referred 2 as toponym!!! ^.^

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nyayapati GautamAugust 11, 2009 at 1:51 PM

    There was a typo which I did not notice at the time of sending the mail. Golconda is a Toponym and not an Eponym. Will make the correction. Thanks for pointing it out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. kunalt1920August 14, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    earlier you discussed about golconda in one of the class
    but now going through mail the idea about golconda is more clear
    thans

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nyayapati GautamAugust 14, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    Hi Kunal,

    Nice to know that there is more clarity. Any specific reason why it was not all that clear in class?

    ReplyDelete

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