South Asian toponyms: a note by the editor
This is an editorial note by Mubin Sheppard announcing a toponymic research project undertaken by Dr. John Vivian Gottlieb Mills, a former President of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1937).
Summary
The note describes a provisional register of approximately 8,000 place-names along the coasts of South Asia (south of Hormuz, excluding China) as they stood around A.D. 1600, being compiled by Dr. Mills and his linguist wife Marguerite Melanie. The register will use British Admiralty “Pilots” and chart names as standard forms, listing variants beneath them, and will record features, coordinates, and general area as essential data, with notes on historical significance and references to key commentators as supplementary information (p. 148–149). The compilers aim to interpret passages in English, Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Malay, and Chinese, and to include Chinese names on a comprehensive scale for the first time in such a register (p. 149).
The note also provides a biographical sketch of Dr. Mills (b. 1887), covering his career in the Federated Malay States Civil Service, his legal and judicial appointments in Malaya, his 1970 Hakluyt Society edition of Ma Huan, and his more recent articles on Arab and Chinese navigators in Malaysian waters (p. 149–150).