Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 6, Part 2 (1964)
173 (of 234)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
July, 1964] NOTES ON SOME EARLY INDIAN NAMES 423 We have only part of the mythology of Vedic times; we have
priestly and factitious mythology, but much of the old genuine
article has been lost; e.g. does the name UK峁ORANDHRA
refer to the Iranian myth of the slaying of the primeval bull?
"cavity, hole of the bull" would be incomprehensible. Or again,
why should anyone want a shell, conch as his friend, or perhaps
have a conch-contract, SANKHAMITRA? Or, kings at least
may change their names, or have several, or be referred to by a title;
eg. Sahadeva S膩r帽jaya decided, or was advised to call himself
SUPLAN, which is less obvious than his own name, SAHADEVA.
Or, we have in 435 ANURUDDHA taking the throne-name
NANDIVARDHANA, but nicknamed MUNDA, baldy. BIMBI-
SARA is 艢RENIKA, and so on; Are there taboos about the use
of names? And finally, we never know the slang, which is a
very real part of a society.
One might expect archaisms to survive in names; a baby
may be called after his grandfather, who was called after his
uncle, and so on. Words may survive in old senses, or even
old words survive only in names; e.g. ALARKA of c 1270 looks
as if he should be compared with Gk. alalke, alal komenos strength/
defence (Lat. arceo ?), a suitable name for a king, as would be
VIMSA & VIVIMSA, comparable with Lat. vinco, I conquer
(Waldy-Pokorny want velar/k for Lith. & OSI., but semantically
examples from the former at least do not look too close). An Indo-
Europeanist would hope to find names preserved in different
languages, and there may well be more than have been noticed.
Geographically Kirfel finds KARAPATHA as hills, which must
be the same name as the European Carpathians: but BALH莫KAS
and BELGI show the same root, though the suffix is different.
Should one separate R膧MA from ROMULUS & REMUS? An-
cient habits too may be preserved in names, e.g. the ritual nudity of
the Celtic warrior is well known, and such must explain the name
NAGNAJIT, conquering naked or if we remember that Agamem-
non was aggrieved by the possibility of losing the king's special
share, we may have the explanation of AJAMIDHA, DVIM莫DHA,
having the leader's wage, having double wage.
