Call to rename silk city as ‘Brahmapur’

Berhampur: State govt's proposal to restore the original Odia names of 24 places and ensure correct English transliteration has prompted literary activists to renew a long-standing demand to officially rename Berhampur as Brahmapur.Activists said the move presents an opportunity to correct what they describe as a colonial-era distortion of the name of southern Odisha's biggest city. While the state's name was changed from Orissa to Odisha and the language from Oriya to Odia about 15 years ago through a central legislation, Berhampur has inconsistent spelling across official records. The city's name is spelt differently by various authorities. Indian Railways uses ‘Brahmapur', while India Post spells it as ‘Berhampur'. The civic body is officially called ‘Brahmapur Municipal Corporation' but several state govt departments continue to use ‘Berhampur'. The local cooperative bank carries the name ‘Berhampore Cooperative Central Bank, Brahmapur'. Literary activist Sagar Ranjan Tripathy said the original name of the city was ‘Brahmapur' but British rulers altered its spelling. "The British could not pronounce Brahmapur properly and used Berhampur instead. When the state is restoring original Odia names, it is time to correct this anomaly," he said. Subrat Kumar Sahu, vice-president of Utkal Sammilani, said the organisation had earlier urged the govt to change the city's name to Brahmapur, in keeping with its historical and cultural roots. Local historian P Venugopal Rao, author of ‘City of Brahma', said the British likely modified the spelling to avoid postal confusion with similarly named towns such as Berhampore in West Bengal and Brahampur in Punjab. Activists have urged the state govt to include Berhampur in the current renaming exercise.