Indian Epigraphy c16.s7.1

c16.s7.1

The names of persons and families in different parts of India exhibit a great diversity so much so that many of them can be easily located in particular areas of the country. Thus personal names like Subrahmaṇya and Mahāliṅga and family names like Ayyar and Aiyangar are only found in the South,² while names like Rāsavihārī (pronounced *Rāsbihāri*) Harekr̥ṣṇa, etc., and cognomens like Mukhopādhyāya, Vasu, etc., are only expected in the East. Similarly, names with the suffixes *appa* and *amma* (*ambal* in Tamil) for males and females respectively can only be expected in particular areas of the South. In the West, family names are often formed by suffixing the word *kar* to the name of the locality from which the family in question originally hailed (e.g. Bijāpurkar, ‘one whose family hails from Bijāpur’), while in the South the name of the locality itself is usually the family name which is placed before personal names. The name of the father is often added to one’s name in these parts. But while, in Western names like Devadatta Rāmakr̥ṣṇa Bhāṇḍārkar, the first is the personal name, the second is the father’s name and the last contains the name of a locality, in Southern names like Sarvepalli Rāmasvāmi Veṅkaṭarāmaṇ, the order is—first the family name which is the name of a locality, then the father’s name and finally the personal name. Even the same name is pronounced and written differently in different parts; e.g. personal names—Gaṇapati=Gaṇpat, Kaṇabadi; Kṛṣṇa=Kiṣen, Kriṣen, Kruṣṇa and Kiruṣṇaṇ¹; family names (professional)—Śreṣṭhin=Seṭh and Ceṭṭi, etc. Some such regional peculiarities are also noticed in inscriptions even of early times. Thus early inscriptions of South India, especially of the Telugu and Kannaḍa-speaking areas, often mention male and female names with the suffix aṇṇaka or aṇṇaka and aṇṇikā or aṇṇikā respectively. This peculiarity is not noticed in other parts of the country. Names like Saḍaiya-Māraṇ, i.e. ‘Māraṇ, son of Saḍaiyaṇ’, are also often found in South Indian records and not elsewhere.