Pradesh
A pradesh refers to a province or territory in various South Asian languages. It is written प्रदेश in Devanagari script (used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Konkani and Nepali), প্রদেশ in Bengali script (used for Assamese prôdex, Bengali and Bishnupriya Manipuri prodesh), ପ୍ରଦେଶ in Odia script, પ્રદેશ in Gujarati script, ਪ੍ਰਦੇਸ਼ in Gurmukhi script, ಪ್ರದೇಶ in Kannada script, പ്രദേശം in Malayalam script, ప్రదేశ్ in Telugu script, பிரதேசம் (piratecam) in Tamil script, ප්රදේශ් in Sinhala script and پردیش in Nasta'liq script. It derives from the Sanskrit pradeśa, meaning "Sub-region or Sub-country". The same word was borrowed into Thai as ประเทศ prathet, Lao as ປະເທດ pathet and Khmer as ប្រទេស brotes, meaning "nation".
States of India
There are five Indian states whose official name bears the word pradesh:
- Andhra Pradesh, Land of the Andhras
- Arunachal Pradesh, Aruna/Arunachal = Land of the Sun or Land of the dawn-lit mountains
- Himachal Pradesh, Hima/Himachal = Land of the Snow
- Madhya Pradesh, Central Province, replacing the former Central Provinces and Berar which was later renamed as Madhya Bharat
- Uttar Pradesh, Northern Province, although not the north-most province; it was formerly the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
It is also found in the names of three proposed states that are not currently extant:
- Harit Pradesh, Green Province, part of a proposed division of Uttar Pradesh
- Maru Pradesh, Desert Province, part of a proposed division of Rajasthan
- Vindhya Pradesh, Land of the Vindhya, former state merged into Madhya Pradesh in 1956
see also: Pradesh Congress Committee
Provinces of Nepal
- Koshi Pradesh (proposed name)
- Mithila Pradesh (proposed name)
- Bagmati Pradesh
- Gandaki Pradesh
- Lumbini Pradesh (proposed name)
- Karnali Pradesh
- Sudurpashchim Pradesh
Adjective Pradeshik
The adjective form, or equivalent of provincial is pradeshik.