Ndma in Namakarana: Structures of Personal Names Ruled in the Grihyasutras
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(1) Ndma in Namakarana: Structures of Personal Names Ruled in the Grihyasutras Shinye Iwasaki I. Personal names in ancient India present valuable linguistic and chro- nological data, sometimes indicating; their father or mother, tribe or country or locality. For instance, in the Upanishads we find names such as Sveta- ketu Aruneya, Satyakama Jabala, Janaka Vaideha, Asvapati, Kaikeya and so on. Svetaketu Aruneya is a Brahmana, son of Uddaraka Aruni (Brh. vi, 2; Chand. v, 3; vi, 1). In these two names of father and son, we see that Svetaketu is the personal name proper and Aruneya is the name derived from his father's name. Satyakama, a Brahmacarin, is given by his mother (3) a name Jabala for his gotra name which is derived from her name Jabala, as she does not know of what family (gotra) he belongs (Chand. iv, 4, 1- 5). And also Janaka, king of Videha (Brh. iii, 1; iv, 4), and Asvapati, king of the Kekayas(4) (Chand. v, 11, 4), have the names derived from the name of the country or the tribe along with their personal names proper.(5) The linguistic materials to compose a personal name proper are men- tioned in the articles of Namakarana (NK, the rite of name-giving for a newborn child) in the Grhyasutras (GS). GS are regarded as one of the old (1) The words 'nama or namadheya; namakarana or namakarman, namadheya, namadheyakarana' are found in the Sutras or in commentaries. (2) Cf. V. S. Agrawala, India as Known to Panini, 1953, p. 182. (3) The word 'gotra' denoted the ancestral family from which its members traced their descent. (4) A tribe 'Kaikeya' and the kingdom 'Kekaya' are found in the Mahabha- rata and the Purana. Cf. S. Sorensen, Index to Mahabharata. V. R. Ramachan- dra Dikshitar, Purana Index, 3 vols., Univ. of Madras 1951-55. (5) Four principal classes of names are known to Panini in his Astadhyayi: (1) gotra names, (2) patronymics, (3) names derived from localities and (4) personal names proper (manusya-nama, v, 3, 78-84). Agrawala, op. cit. -341- Nama in Namakarana (S. Iwasaki) (39) stocks of Aryan knowledge concerning rituals, customs and manners in their household ceremonies (such as marriage, rite of birth, Upanayana etc.), collected until around the Brahmana period. These are the articles of NK or its portions: - nama casmai dadyuh/ghosavadadyantarantastham (=gho) abhinistanan- tam (=abo) dvyaksaram (=dvyo)/caturaksaram (=cato) va/dvyo pratistha- kamas cato brahmavarcasakamah/yugmani tv eva pumsam/ayujani strinam/ Asvalayana i, 15, 4-9.(6) (7) ..... ity ante ca mantrasya gho dirghabo krtam nama dadyat/etad (8) ataddhitar/ayugdantam strinam/ Gobhiliya ii, 8, 14-16. dasamyam utthapya brahmanan bhojayitva pita nama karoti/dvyo va (9) cato va gho dirghabo krtam kuryan na taddhitam/ayujaksaram striyai tad- dhitam/sarma brahmanasya varma ksatriyasya gupteti vaisyasya/ Paraskara i, 17, 1-4.(10) dasamyam utthitayam snatayam putrasya nama dadhati pita mateti/ (11) dvyo cato va namapurvamakhyatottaram dirghabo gho/api va yasmin sv ity upasargas syat tad dhi pratisthitam iti hi brahmanarn/ayujaksaram (12) kumaryah/ Apastamba vi, 15, 8-11. II. The GS lay down the Jatakarman (ceremony of birth) to be performed at the birth of child and the NK on the tenth or twelfth days after the birth, or in the first half of the month under an auspicious Naksatra after the birth, etc. Two names were conf eyed on a child, a secret (guhya) name (13) and the name to be used in public (vyavaharika) The secret name is (6) Ed. by V. S. S. Ranade with Narayana's Comm., Poona 1936. AnSS No. 59. (7,11) abhinisthanantam. (9) abhinisthanam. (8) Ed. by C. Tarkalankara with a Comm., 2nd ed., Calcutta 1908. (10) Ed. by G. Krsnadasa with Harihara's Comm., Bombay 1938. Cf. MnS. ii, 29-33. (12) Ed. by Cinnasvami Sastri with two Comm, Haradatta's Anakula and Sudar- sana's Tatparyadarsana, Benares 1928. KSS No. 59. (13) Kaus. i, 16, 15. Cf. abhivadaniyam namadheyam 'name to be used at respect- ful salutation (at the time of Upanayana etc.)' Gobh. ii, 10, 23-25: ao no kalpa- yitva/devatairayam va naksatrasrayam va/gotrasrayam apy eke/Cf. Mn. i, 18, 2. Hir. refers to three names in ii, 4, 12-15. Also see Chand. iv, 4, 1-5. -340- (40) Nama in Namakarana (S. Iwasaki) not always given on the day of NK but immediately before (i.e. at the Sosyanti-homa) or after the birth. On the other hand the vyavaharika name is given at the NK. These two names are the personal names proper in GS. As far as the letters of the name are concerned, the personal names (14) proper are made up as follows, according to the Sutaras andthe scholia. The (15) name of a son is made of an even number of syllables, beginning with a sonant,having a semi-vowelin it,(17) and ending with a long vowel or a (18) (19) Visarga. And sometimes it must take a krt ending, and not a taddhita. As for the name of a girl, many Sutras prescribe that it must consist of an odd numberof syllables,and endingin 'da' or 'a' and so (21)As stated above, GS have something common in their regulations on the letter (varna) (22) of the name. The following is the result of analysis. (14) Also I referred to the following. H. Oldenberg, The Grihya-Sutras, SBE xxix, xxx. Kamalabai Deshpande, The Child in Ancient India, 1936. V. M. Apte, Social and Religious Life in GS, 1954 (1st 1939). Ram Gopal, India of Vedic Kalpasutras, Delhi 1959. (15) Cf. Asv. i, 15, 8 etc. dve aksare yasya tat dvyo catvary aksarani yasya tac cato anayor vikalpah. Par. C. aksarani svarah. akaradayo dvadasasvarah. sistam vyanjanam. dve aksare tad dvyo. vyanjanam aparimitam. Asv. C. (16) ghosavadadi. varganam prathamadvitiyah sesasas caghosah, tad anye vya- njanavarna ghosavantah. ghosavadaksaram adi yasya namnah, 'tat gho. Gobh. C. Cf. Asv. C, Par. C (gho aksarani gaghanajajhanadadhanadadhanababhamaha ity etani), Ap. C-a (varganam trtiyacaturthau hakaras ca gho); Hir. C (gho sarvavargaprathamadvitiyebhyo 'nyad vyanjanam), Kaus. C (varganam pratha- madvitiya sasasahas caghosah, ghosavanto 'nya iti). (17) antarantastham. antasthayaralavah. anter madhye antastham aksarani yasya tad antarao. Gobh. C. Cf. Asv. C, Par. C, Ap. C; Kaus. C (yavarala antasthah. tesam eko varno madhye syad ityarthah), Hir. C. (18) dirghabo. dirgho dvimatro varnah, abhinisthanam visarjaniyam aksaram ...... dirghas cabhinisthanan ca dirghabhinisthane, to ante yasya tat dirghabo. Gobh. C. Cf. Par. C, Hir. C, Ap. C; Asv. C, Kaus. C. (19) krtam krtpratyayamtam kumarasya namadheyam kuryat. na taddhitam tad- dhitapratyayamtaM na kuryat. Par. C. (20) striya namni visesam aha ayujaksaram ayujani visamani tryadiny aksarani yasmin namni tad ayujaksaram......taddhitam taddhitapratyayamtani striyai...... Par. C. Man. GS prescribes three syllables for a girl (i, 18, 1). -339- Nama in Namakarana (S. Iwasaki) (41) GS belonging to the Rgveda Asvalayana.........G(1)......A(2)......Ab(3)......2, 4(5)....................................Ay(9) (23) Kausitaka.........G......A .....Ab ......2, 4, 6......K(nT)(7)............Ay (24) Safikhayana ......G..............................2, 4, 6......K(nT) (25) GS belonging to the Samaveda Gobhiliya.........G ......A .....D. Ab(4)..................K(aT)...............Ay GS belonging to the Sukla Yajurveda Paraskara ......G .......A .......D. Ab...2, 4.......K(nT)T(8)(striyai). ....Ay GS belonging to the Krsna Yajurveda (26) Laugaksi............G ......A ..................4 (27) Bharadvaja.........G ......A ......D. Ab...2, 4 (28) Hiranyakesin .....G ......A ......D. Ab...2, 4............Su(6) (29) Baudhayana......G ......A ......D. Ab...2, 4, 6.........Su Apastamba.........G ......A ......D. Ab...2, 4............Su ....................Ay Notes: (1) ghosavat (2) antastha, antahstha (Sankh.) (3) abhinisthana, ostao (Asv., Bhar.) (4) dirghabhinisthana (Cf. (3)) (5) Number of syllables (for a son's name) (6) upasarga (7) krt, na taddhita, ataddhita (8) taddhita (9) Odd number of syllables for a girl's name (21) Varaha GS lays down that the name of a girl should not be the name of a river, a Naksatra, the moon, the sun, or Pasan; nor should it end in 'datta' or 'raksita' preceded by the name of a deity etc (iii, 3). Ram Gopal, op, cit. According to the Ap. GS, girls who have names of a Naksatra, a river, a tree, or in which the last letter but one is 'r' or 'l' (rephalakaropanta) are not regarded to become good brides and therefore such names should be avoided (i, 3, 13-14). Such remarks are also found in MnS. iii, 9 and the Kamasutra. (22) Besides these Sutras, there are about eight kinds of the published GS being uninvestigated. They are Jaiminiya (SV), Baijavapa (SYV), Manava, Agni- vesya, Vadhula, Vaikhanasa, Varaha (KYV) and Kausikasutra (AV). (23) Kaus. i, 16, 9-15. Ed. by T. R. Cintamani with Bhavatrata's Comm., Madras 1944. (24) S'ankh. i, 24, 2-6. Cf. R. Gopal's op. cit. p. 287, n. 55 and SBE xxix. (25) Khadira (ii, 2, 30-31; 3, 6-12: cf. SBE xxix) and Drahyayana (ii, 2, 31- 32: cf. Drah. GS-Vrtti, AnSS 74) (SV) made no mention of these matters. (26) Laug. 34, 1-3=Kathaka 34, 1-3. La.; ed. by M. Kaul Sastri with Devapala's Comm., Srinagar 1928, '34, KSTS 49. Ka.; ed by W. Caland, Lahore 1925. -338- (42) Nama in Namakazana (S. Iwasaki) III. In the regulations of name-making, each Sutra has its own character- istics relating to the Veda to which it belongs. Asvalayana and Kausitaka belonging to RV do not take a long vowel at the end of the name of a son and make contrast with other Sutras belonging to YV and SV. The deriv- ation of nouns by means of a krt affix and.