The word "Mewar" is vernacular form of "Medapata" (IAST: Medap¿¿a), the ancient name of the region. The earliest epigraph that mentions the word "Medapata" is a 996-997 CE (1053 VS) inscription discovered at Hathundi (Bijapur). The word "pata" or "pataka" refers to an administrative unit. According to the historian G. C. Raychaudhuri, Medapata was named after the Meda tribe, which has been mentioned in Var¿hamihira's Brihat-Samhita.[1] The 1460 Kumbhalgarh inscription associates the Medas with Vardhana-giri (modern Badnor in Mewar region).[2] Historian Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri associates the ancient Medas with the modern Mer people.[3]

The 1285 CE (1342 VS) Mount Abu (Achaleshwar) inscription of the Guhila king Samarasimha provides the following etymology while describing the military conquests of his ancestor Bappa Rawal (Bappaka): "This country which was, in battle, totally submerged in the dripping fat ('medas' in Sanskrit) of wicked people by Bappaka bears the name of ¿r¿ Medap¿¿a." Historian Anil Chandra Banerjee dismisses this as a "poetic fancy", but acknowledges the 'terrible' battles fought between the Rajputs and the Arabs.[4]