A Pali anecdote; the false etymology of Isigiri / -gili

There are a few delightful examples brought up in the course of B.M.
Barua's _Old Brahmi Inscriptions_, and they are delightful to a Pali
scholar because Barua himself is a Pali scholar.

The following "false etymology" was new to me, and rather than
appearing in a commentary (etc.), comes directly from the mouth of the
Buddha:

[QUOTE:]
It is interesting to observe how scholars after scholars have erred on
the wrong side in subsuming all that is in Pali is Pali.  The spelling
of /.R.sigiri/ as /Isigili/ [...] is cited by Prof. Luders as a
notable instance of [a] lingering old Maagadhism in Pali [...].  But
what can be more misleading than this?  As we have sought to show
elsewhere,* the usual Pali name would have been /Isigiri/, and the
/Isigili/ form had to be adopted for a very special reason [...]
stated in the Sutta itself:

/Bhutapubba.m, Bhikkhave, pa~nca-Pacceka-buddha-sataani imasmi.m
Isigilismi.m pabbate ciranivaasino ahesu.m.  Te ima.m pabbata.m
pavisantaa dissanti, pavi.t.thaa na dissanti.  Ta.m ena.m manussaa
disvaa eva.m aaha.msu: "aya.m pabbato ime isii gilatiiti Isigili,"
Isigili tveva sama~n~naa udapaadi./  (M.N., vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 68
[PTS?])

"Formerly, O Bhikkhus, some five hundred Egoistic Buddhas (hermit
teachers) came to live for ever (i.e., to cast off their bodies) in
(the dark caverns of) this Isigili mountain.  They could be seen
entering (the caverns of) this mountain, and once they entered into
the mountain, they could no longer be seen.  Observing this strange
happening, the people said: 'This mountain swallows these sages,' and
hence arose the name of the hill--/Isigili/, 'the swallower of
sages'."

The explanation offered by the Buddha enables us to understand that
the real name of the mountain was /.R.sigiri/ or /Isigiri/, "the
Mountain abode of the hermits," was locally pronounced /Isigili/, and
acquired a new association of ideas in a fanciful etymological
derivation [...]
[END QUOTE.]

It is interesting for me to reflect that, writing in 1929, Barua did
not regard himself as working in a "new" field of scholarship; on the
contrary, the Khaaravela inscription (occupying a large part of the
text in question) already had a hundred years of western scholarship
on it, going back to Prinsep.

This is now a rare book, and whereas Barua's work on Ashoka has been
reprinted, this work on Khaaravela is not.

I here state the title, etc., without diacritics:

Benimadhab Barua, 1929,
_Old Brahmi Inscriptions in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves_
("Professor in Charge of the Department of Pali... scholar in Pali."
A title rarely seen since 1929, hm?)
University of Calcutta.

E.M.