Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.23

v3.c40.23

Oasis.—We may here pause to consider whether in the bah, bawa, or wah, of the Indian desert, may not be found the oasis of the Greeks, corrupted by them from el-wah, or, as written by Belzoni (in his account of the Libyan desert, while searching for the [294] temple of Ammon), Elloah. Of the numerous terms used to designate water in these arid regions, as par, rar, tar, dah or daha, bah, bawa, wah, all but the latter are chiefly applicable to springs or pools of water, while the last (wah), though used often in a like sense, applies more to a water-course or stream. El-wah, under whatever term, means—‘the water.’ Again, daha or dah is a term in general use for a pool, even not unfrequently in running streams and large rivers, which, ceasing to flow in dry weather, leave large stagnant masses, always called dah. There are many of the streams of Rajputana, having such pools, particularized as hathi-dah, or ‘elephant-pool,’ denoting a sufficiency of water even to drown that animal. Now the word dah or daha, added to the generic term for water, wah, would make wadi (pool of water), the Arabian term for a running stream, and commonly used by recent travellers in Africa for these habitable spots. If the Greeks took the word wadi from any MS., the transposition would be easily accounted for: wadi would be written thus وادي, and by the addition of a point واذي, wazi, easily metamorphosed, for a euphonious termination, into oasis.¹