Norwegian indologist Christian Lassen had proposed that ''Nepāla'' was a compound of ''Nipa'' (foot of a mountain) and ''-ala'' (short suffix for ''alaya'' meaning abode), and so ''Nepāla'' meant "abode at the foot of the mountain". He considered ''Ne Muni'' to be a fabrication. Indologist Sylvain Levi found Lassen's theory untenable but had no theories of his own, only suggesting that either ''Newara'' is a vulgarism of sanskritic ''Nepala,'' or ''Nepala'' is Sanskritization of the local ethnic; his view has found some support though it does not answer the question of etymology. It has also been proposed that ''Nepa'' is a Tibeto-Burman stem consisting of ''Ne'' (cattle) and ''Pa'' (keeper), reflecting the fact that early inhabitants of the valley were ''Gopalas'' (cowherds) and ''Mahispalas'' (buffalo-herds). Suniti Kumar Chatterji believed ''Nepal'' originated from Tibeto-Burman roots – ''Ne,'' of uncertain meaning (as multiple possibilities exist), and ''pala'' or ''bal'', whose meaning is lost entirely.