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,
• 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" or "country".

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

• Bagmati Pradesh
• Gandaki Pradesh
• Karnali Pradesh
• Kosi Pradesh (proposed name)
• Lumbini Pradesh
• Mithila Pradesh (proposed name)
• Sudurpashchim Pradesh

Adjective Pradeshik

The adjective form, or equivalent of provincial is pradeshik.

See also

• Desh (disambiguation)
• Desi
• -stan
• Parish