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)
176 (of 234)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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426
啶啶班ぞ啶｀ぎ啷� - [pur膩峁嘺m - ] 笔鲍搁膧狈础
[Vol. VI., No. 2
see in Gk. trephein, nourish, make stiff or thick, is present with
connotation of the duty of the householder, or virility, suitable for
ksatriyas; cf. Vidarbha of 1290. Or VAHNI as a k峁triya may be
the warrior charioteer (1400) or rider, but as a br膩hma峁嘺 (patro-
nymic 920 & 830) his name may be theophoric, the epithet
of Agni.
One might hope to see when certain kinds of names, or
elements of names come into popularity. We may have some
leads on such questions: e. g. the root raks is older than gup, and
RV knows only gupita, gupta being only AV, yet neither root
appears in names till late in the Pur膩峁嘺s there is only DEVA-
RAK峁TA, and his homonymous sister, childern of Devaka, and so
very poorly attested, but -rak峁ta is common on the Barhut inscri-
ptions, found also as author of ThG 79. For -gupta we have a
somewhat doubtful BHADRAGUPTA of c 1060 (to be translated
as Well-protected?. cf. Gk. sphodra, rather than Protected by
prosperity), UPAGUPTA Vaideha c 560, also not theophoric,
CANDRAGUPTA Maurya 320, BRHASPATIGUPTA, br膩hma峁嘺
艢膩yasthi of c 280. MilP. adds A艣vagupta, but the type of name is
common in inscriptions The suggestion would be that the rise of
such names coincides with the decline of the sacrifice and faith in
the brahmanic ritual, and therefore also with the trend to theism.
We were surprized to find how uncommon theophoric names
were in Skt. ; the proportion seemed to be about 1/20, and of these,
in many a title or epithet rather than the name of the deity is
involved. The proportion of br膩hma峁嘺 to k峁triya is about 2: 1.
Aryaman is guaranteed as a name element by P膩峁噄ni 5/3. 84, and
by his contemporaries ARYAMARADHA (460) & ARYAMA-
BHUTI (390) Gobhila, but it might be asked if Aryaman is not
negligeable as a deity by this time, and the names mean Grati-
fying his friends (rather than gift/favour of Aryaman), Having
friends for his wealth. But Aryaman does give easy childbirth,
AV 1/11.1.
With Agni it is often hard to say whether we have the god
or the factual (ritual and domestic) fire. And we might note that
