Samskrit names in vedic India

[Harsha Wardhan]

Respected scholars,

I am trying to get an understanding of the names and naming conventions of vedic and post-vedic India. When I read the scriptures, I always find myself pleasantly surprised by the names occurring in them. 

Here are a few questions on this issue:

1. Though all names in the vedas and the puranas are based on samskrit, I find the older names to be quite different from the later ones. For example, the names of rishis and kings in the Upanishads are all unique, without a parallel. Whereas the names of kings and rishis in the ramayana, mahabharata and the puranas seem somewhat similar (in that they are compound names, have a gramatically-derived meaning). Can any light be thrown upon this area?

2. Were mononymous names like vasistha, yajnavalkya, vyasa, suka, common? How about polynyms with a first name, middle name and surname, as is now prevalent in these times? 

3. What were the favoured or popular names of the vedic period?

4. Was it common to give multiple names to a single person? I am not referring to derived or clan names like kaunteya or pandava, but other ones, based on characteristics, exploits or given at birth.

5. How were cities named?

6. Were women's names changed after marriage in those times?

7. Did astrology have anything to do with naming people and cities?

I'd appreciate your kind responses on this matter.

with regards

Harsha

[Hemant Dave]

Hi!

1. Not all names are based on Sankrit. Some are derived from languages other than Sanskrit. FBJ Kuiper's (and following him Witzel's) publications deal with the issue. It must be noted that many serious scholars do not agree with Kuiper's methods or results (E.g., Alfred Master, Rahul Peter Das, Manfred Mayrhofer, Thomas Oberlies, and others.) 

2. In so far as the present day system of naming is concerned, the tripartite names are a 'gift' of the English. Secondly, the middle name in Gujarat and Maharasthra (which is father's name) has nothing to do with what is understood by middle name in the West. (In German a person may have more than one name. The famous Indologist George Bühler's full name is Johann Georg Bühler, where Johann Georg is his first names (Vorname) and Georg is is common name (Rufname).) 

Elsewhere in India, if I am not mistaken, father's name does not appear. R. C. Majumdar for instance stands for Ramesh Chandra Majumdar or S. K. Chatterjee or Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, and so on. In the south the naming practice is quite different. In Gujarat (and presumably in Maharashtra also), there was no concept of surname; and even if people had one they were not used.

For the rest, I do not know much except that patronyms (Rama Dasharathi) and metronyms (Lakshmana Saumitri) were in vogue. For the latter, Sarvadaman Singh (Polyandry in Ancient India) has an interesting hypothesis, which I also reach independently.

Kane's essay in the IHQ (14: 239 ff. which I have not read) can be consulted. And in case you can read German, the following will be useful.

Horsch, P. 1966. Soziologisches zur altindischen Namenkunde. Asiatische Studien 18–19: 227–246.

Mayrhofer, Manfred. 2003. Die Personennamen in der R̥gveda-Saṁhitā.

​Best,

H.

​

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"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them..."

[Madhav Deshpande]

Dear Hemantji,

     By any chance, do you have pdfs of Horsch and Mayrhofer?  If you do, please send them to me.  Thanks.

Madhav Deshpande

[Srinivasakrishnan ln]

Re Point #7 about astrology and personal names, Alfons Hilka does deal with it. While the book mostly deals with post Vedic names, it's a very systematic treatment. I feel it may be generally useful to anyone interested in the subject of classical Indian personal names. It's also in German unfortunately. 

The reference is:

Hilka, Alfons, 1877-1939: Beiträge zur Kenntnis der indischen Namengebung : die altindischen Personennamen. (Breslau : M. & H. Marcus, 1910)

Srini

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[Santosh Kumar Shukla]

Dear Harsha Wardhan ji

Namaskar 

 

I would like to suggest you that please read Mimamsa rules of naming-namadheyaprakarana.

With regards 

Santosh Kumar Shukla 

[Nabanarayan Bandyopadhyay]

Dear Harsha Wardhanji,

This is to draw your kind attention to the following points relating to the study of names:

The need of  studies on names and the methods to be followed were discussed at an international conference held at Tübingen in 1931. In this field, there is an organization named International Council of Onomastic Sciences (erstwhile International Committee of Onomastic Sciences, 1949-1993) maintaining contacts among onomasticians and furthering the studies at international level since 1993.

Betty Heimann, in her article "Zur indischen Namenkunde",  Studia Indo-Iranica (Leipzig 1931), lays stress on the meaningfulness of Indian names. In 1938,  J. A. van Velze in his book Names of Persons in Early Sanskrit Literature (Utrecht), treated the personal names in Sanskrit inscriptions and older Sanskrit literature including Vedic, Epic, Puranic and grammatical.

 

In 1978,  M .B. Emeneau in his article named "Towards an Onomastics of South Asia" (Journal of the American Oriental Society, p.1), discussed issues relating to semantic study of names with special onomastic problems and stressed the necessity of further work on the subject.

 

F.M. Fenny: ‘Names and Naming’. The Encyclopedia of Religion ed. Mircea Eliade, Vol.10, New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1987, p.300-301,  is also worthy to be consulted.

 

In 2008,  Professor Samiran Chandra  Chakrabarti wrote a book on Proper Names of Persons in Vedic Literature, published by the School of Vedic Studies, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata-700 050.

Best

Nabanarayan Bandyopadhyay

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[Harsha Wardhan]

Dear Nabanarayan ji and respected scholars, thank you for taking the time and directing me to the relevant resources. I appreciate all your inputs.

with regards

Harsha

Srini

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