grAma to nagara shift
Source: TW
I should remark that a philological examination of Sanskrit tradition will show that the grAma (village/encampment) was an ideal only the remote Indo-Aryan past – the time of the shruti. Since the 2nd urbanization the center of cultured H life has always been the city. The ways of the paura in the nagara were seen as epitome of high culture & lot of new norms are centered on the paura householder, perhaps a shift from the older gRhamedhin in more rural settings. This shift begins in the latest layer of the veda where we see the emergence of an Aryan neologism – nagara which went on to supplant the old pUr to a degree. Thus, I think even a wanderer V1 like the great rAjashekhara might have seen the rural gRhamedhin as a bit of an anachronism.+++(4)+++
nagara-word distribution
Source: TW
grAma
Good map – illustrates some historical processes. The 2 words pur & grama>gaon are already seen in the RV & mean fortified settlement or village. grama has an additional meaning of host/military encampment. The Slavic ortholog of grama means a mass. Which might explain its emergence in Indo-Aryan – a collection of household -> village. The dominance of grAma in uttarAkhaNDa & old daNDakAraNya suggests it represents a distinct mode of Aryan expansion via small migrant settlements rather than royal conquests. This appears to have happened both to the south & the north.
nagara
nagara is a late IA neologism seen in the taittirIya AraNyaka in the same sense as its current use. It might reflect growing urbanization is certain zones of the late IA settlement. The above map clearly shows that nagara has two foci one in the west in Rajasthan & another in the east. We suspect that this recapitulates the reurbanization under the Indo-Aryan-s. This is consistent with nagara coming from a form like nR^igara – a gathering of men which by the late Vedic period had acquired a prAkR^itic patina; thus, being expressed a nR^i>na-gara.
Finally, it is not clear if the maker included other apabhramsha formations into this like nar/ner -> bikA-ner; gir-nAr; which are found in the old locus of nagara.
pur
The form pur & its augmentations are largely associated with the original domain of the Arya-s in India. The nagara was likely superimposed on pur- in the east with the first urbanization in the magadha-va~Nga region.
The pura focus in the south appears to be a consequence of new foundings/revivals by the chAlukya-> vijayanagara.
palli
halli/palli are clearly Dravidian in provenance.