Pradesh

A pradesh refers to a province or territories in various South Asian languages. It is written प्रदेश in Devanagari script (used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Konkani and Nepali), প্রদেশ in Eastern Nagari script (used for Assamese prôdex, Bengali prodesh, and Bishnupriya Manipuri), ପ୍ରଦେଶ in Odia script, પ્રદેશ in Gujarati script, ಪ್ರದೇಶ in Kannada script, പ്രദേശം in Malayalam script, ప్రదేశ్ in Telugu script, பிரதேசம் piratecam in Tamil 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 (i.e., Sunrise)
• 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 two states that are not currently extant:

• Harit Pradesh, Land of the Greeneries, part of a proposed division of Uttar Pradesh
• Vindhya Pradesh, Land of the Vindhyas, merged into Madhya Pradesh in 1956

see also: Pradesh Congress Committee

Provinces of Nepal

• Koshi Pradesh (Proposed)
• Mithila Pradesh (Proposed)
• Bagmati Pradesh (Proposed)
• Gandaki Pradesh
• Lumbini Pradesh (Proposed)
• Karnali Pradesh
• Sudurpashchim Pradesh
• Pradesh Sabha

Adjective Pradeshik

The adjective form, or equivalent of provincial is pradeshik.

See also

• Desh (disambiguation)
• Desi
• -stan