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Rarh region ((ベンガル語:রাঢ়), Rāṛh) is a toponym for an area in the Indian subcontinent that lies between the Chota Nagpur Plateau on the West and the Ganges Delta on the East. Although the boundaries of the region have been defined differently according to various sources throughout history, today it is ''mainly'' coextensive with the state of West Bengal also comprising some portions of the state of Jharkhand and Bihar in India.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rarh )〕 The Rarh region historically has been known by many different names and has hosted numerous settlements throughout history. It is suggested that the Rarh region hosted an ancient civilisation also called ''Rarh'' and a powerful state, however much of its ancient history remains unknown.〔〔 == Different names and etymology == Different names of the region as endonyms are usually variations of the term Rāṛh. It is worth noting that the grapheme ঢ় /ṛh/ is basically the same as ঢ /ḑh/, the only difference being one dot under the ঢ and they belong to the same morphophoneme. The interchangeable variations ''Radha'', ''Rarha'', ''Ladha'', ''Lara'' are observed in the oldest Jain book of codes Acaranga Sutra of the 6th century BC. Some other sources use the endonyms ''Lala'', ''Rara'' and ''Lada''. According to the linguist Sarkar the Chinese called Rarh as ''Lati'', the Greek as ''Ganga Ridae'' and the Aryans as ''Rāṭṭha''. Moreover many Greek, Roman and Egyptian sources use the variations of ''Gangaridai'', ''Gangaridae'', ''Gangaritai'' and ''Gangaridum'' with the sense of a state, nation or civilisation which existed more or less in the same or a larger extent of Rarh. Megasthenes, Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, Arrian, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius Rufus and Plutarch all wrote about Gangaridae.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bankura )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Historic State of Gangaridai )〕 The etymology of the word Rarh is not clear however there are many authors suggesting that it originates from a local language of Austroasiatic family. It could have originated from any of the following words of the Santali language; ''lar'' means "thread", ''rarh'' means "tune" and ''larh'' means "snake". And according to Sarkar, the word originates from Proto-Austroasiatic *''Rāŗhā'' or *''Rāŗho'' which means "land of red soil" or "land of laterite".〔〔 The etymology of the word Gangaridae is also not clear. According to the historian Dr. Atul Sur, Pliny and Ptolemy it means ''Ganga-Ridai'' (Rarh of the Ganges – Ganges' Rarh). However according to other scholars it might derive as ''Ganga-Hrd'' (land with Ganges in its heart), ''Ganga-Rashtra'' (State of the Ganges) or ''Gonda-Ridai'' (Land of the Gonds). Megasthenes call the people of Gangaridae as ''Gangarides''. Diodorus Siculus describes Gangaridae as "a nation possessing the greatest number of elephants and the largest in size."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rarh region」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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