236. Large villages

Size matters. Our ancestors had a special word for large villages. A number of villages have been named with prefix ‘peru’ or ‘peri’ (=large) indicating the expansive size of the area covered by the village.
Note some of the commonly known large villages around us:
Peradi= [pera+aDi]. A large settlement.
Perne= [peru+ Ne.] (Ne=area). Perne is a village near Uppinangadi on NH 48
Pernankila= [Per+Na+ank+ila.] (Na=area, ank=open field; ila= dwelling zone). Pernakila is a village near Udupi.
Perga =[Per+ga.] (ga=village area), The ‘ga’ appears to be the root word of later evolved word ‘gaon’(=village). The place name ‘Perga’ has become ‘Herga’ in the due course due to influence of Kannada.
Permanki= [per+ma+anki.] (‘manki’= elevated area; ‘ma’= elevated, raised; ‘anki’= open field/area)
Peramannur= [per+ maNN+oor]. (maNN=elevated flank of river, soil/sediment filled area
Peraje = [peri+aje]. Anje.>aje(=field). A large field.
Peraabe = [pera+be]. A large habitation. The spatial suffix '-be' apparently is an variant of -va or -ve, as in Belve.
Permude=[Peru+mude]. The word 'mude'('mu'=front, 'de'=area) appears to be a variant of 'munde'(=mogaru),a river flank area.
Perur= [Peru+ur].A large village.
Peruvaje = [Peru+va+aje]. A large field area of habitation.
Peruvayi = [Peru+ va + ayi]. A large area of habitation.
Periadka= [per+ia+adka].( ‘peria’=larger, large area; ‘adka’=aD+ka= field with trees; adka=ancient burial ground)
Peramogaru=[pera+mogaru].A large river plain. (‘mogaru’= a river plain or flank) . The village name has been distended to ‘Paēra mogaru’ (‘pEra’=milky) by inadvertent usage.
Perla =[peri+la]. A large settlement beside a river/stream. ‘ala’=stream, area beside stream.
Perlaguri==[peri+la+ guri]. A deep valley beside a large settlement beside a river/stream.
Perlampadi= [Peri+la+am+paadi].A large settlement beside a river with cattle grazing fields.
Perdala= [peri+Da+ala]. A large area beside a stream.( ‘Da’=area; ‘ala’=stream, area beside stream).
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In Kannada areas, the 'peri' prefix has become 'hiri' or 'hirey'. For example:
Hiriadka described above under Periadka.
Hiregutti = A large hilly aaea (Uttara Kannada).
Hiriyur= A large village. Chitradurga district.
Hiremagalur= Elder daughter's village.

Antiquity
It is possible that some of the familiar words ,like peri /peru, we use in our language could be an ancient word shared by cultures in distant parts of the globe. One of the common explanation science provides is migration of early human tribes on continental scale.
‘Peru’ is name of a large country in South America. One of the meanings attributed to the country name Peru is ‘land of abundance’. The ‘abundance’ and the ‘large size’ seems related properties, suggesting a possible common ancestry for the word ‘Per’ or ‘Peru’.
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