2 Questions

[S Krishna]

Dear INDOLOGISTS,
I have two questions for you:
1. Is there a word/grammatical classification to describe two separate
Samskrt words which have the same meaning(paryAya pada) and  the
spellings are slight variants of each other? i.e. pr`thvI and pr`ithivI
mean "earth" and the spelling is slightly different, but both are
separate words.
Other examples are : mukunda and mucukunda( both mean "viSNu"),
vasudhA and vasundharA( both mean "earth") and probably zabarI and
zaurI ( the lady who appears in the rAmAyaNa, though I'm not sure if
"zaurI" can mean "zabarI"). How have these words been derived?( spelling
is nearly the same but the words are treated  as separate)

2. Can anyone point me towards the derivation/origins of the word "AI"(
mother) in marATHI and assamese? The word AFAIK does not exist in Hindi
and Bengali( the languages spoken in between Maharashtra and
Assam) but is strangely present in these two geographically
discontinuous areas. Are there any other examples of such words?

Regards,
Krishna

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