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. 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. 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. halli/palli are clearly Dravidian in provenance. 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. The pura focus in the south appears to be a consequence of new foundings/revivals by the chAlukya-> vijayanagara
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