Pradesh

Pradesh refers to a province or state in various South Asian languages. It is written प्रदेश in Devanagari script (used for Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, and Nepali), প্রদেশ in Eastern Nagari script (used for Assamese "prôdex", Bengali "prodesh", and Bishnupriya Manipuri), પ્રદેશ in Gujarati script, ಪ್ರದೇಶ in Kannada script, പ്രദേശ്‌ in Malayalam script, ప్రదేశ్ in Telugu script, பிரதேசம் "piratecam" in Tamil script, and پردیش in Nasta'liq script (used for Urdu). The same word was borrowed into Thai as ประเทศ "prathet" and Lao as ປະເທດ "pathet", meaning "nation".

Currently, there are five Indian states whose official name bears the word "pradesh":

* Arunachal Pradesh, "Arunacha" = "Land of the Sun" (i.e., Sunrise)
* Andhra Pradesh, homeland of the Andhras or Telugus
* Madhya Pradesh, Central Province, replacing the former Central India Provinces which was later renamed as Madhya Bharat
* Himachal Pradesh, "Himachal/Himalayas" = "Snowy land"
* Uttar Pradesh, Northern Province, although not the north-most province; it was formerly the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh

It is also borne as the names of two former states of India:

* Harit Pradesh
* Vindhya Pradesh

The adjective form, or equivalent of "provincial" is "pradeshik".

ee also

*Desh
*Desi
*-stan