Dear colleagues,

I am looking at some early (ca. 8th-century) and partly unpublished inscriptions from the Chittagong area and at the roughly contemporary material from Arakan in Burma (alias Rakhine in Myanmar). One of the striking toponymic elements recurring in sources of this period is -lakka (Pīlakka, Naulakka, Kalakka — maybe a toponym Kuṭukka is also connected to this set). It has been proposed that Pīlakka would be the modern site of Pilak in Tripura (see references below). It would be nice to be able to identify at least one or two more of these toponyms with modern places. For this I need maps, as detailed and as old as possible. Does anyone have suggestions on where and how to obtain these? (Preferably without my needing to trek to the British Library or such.)

If anyone has more to say on toponyms in -(la)kka, I will be curious to learn about it.

Best wishes,

Arlo Griffiths

École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO)

Ghosh, Suchandra. 2019. “Understanding the Economic Networks and Linkages of an Expanded Harikela.” In From Mountain Fastness to Coastal Kingdoms : Hard Money and ‘Cashless’ Economies in the Medieval Bay of Bengal World, edited by John Deyell and Rila Mukherjee, 77–108. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367816889.

Mitra, Debala. 1976. “Antiquities of Pilak and Jolaibari, Tripura.” Journal of the Asiatic Society 18: 56–77.