Indian Epigraphy c16.s7.14

c16.s7.14

The custom, referred to above, is intimately related to the development of family names out of name-endings. We have referred above to the coins of many North Indian kings having names ending in *mitra*. Most of the rulers of the Śuṅga dynasty, founded by Puṣyamitra about 185 B.C., had names ending in *mitra*. A large number of current family names in Bengal (e.g. Ghoṣa, Vasu, Mitra, Pāla, Datta, etc.) were no doubt derived in the same way. But the process was not complete in East India even in the early medieval period. The successors of Candragupta I (c. 319-40 A.D.), who was the son of Ghaṭotkaca and grandson of Gupta, all assumed names ending in *gupta* and thus led to the development of the name of the Gupta dynasty. Similarly, the successors of Gopāla I (c. 750-70 A.D.), who was the son of Vapyata and the grandson of Dayitaviṣṇu, all assumed names ending in pāla and thus gave rise to the name of the Pāla dynasty. But the popularity of framing family names even among ordinary people of Eastern India is attested by inscriptions like the Dubi and Nidhanpur copper-plate grants of king Bhāskaravarman (c. 600-50 A.D.), in which the Brāhmaṇa donees, belonging to particular gotras and śākhās and no doubt also to the same families, are found to have generally names ending in the same word such as ghoṣa, soma, pālita, deva, kuṇḍa, nāga, bhūti, sena, mitra, etc.¹ It may be noted that most of these Brahmanical names do not conform to the prescription of certain authorities regarding the name-endings, to which reference has already been made above. Another interesting fact is that no Brāhmaṇa family of the Bengal-Assam region is now known as Ghoṣa, Soma, etc., which are nowadays popular non-Brāhmanical family names. This apparently shows that a number of Brāhmaṇa families have been merged into the non-Brāhmaṇa communities in the area in question. Another fact to which attention may be drawn in this connection is that there are cases in which the uniformity of the name-ending is disturbed by a few names. Thus the names of ten out of the eleven kings of the so-called Later Gupta dynasty of East Malwa and Magadha end in the word gupta with the exception only of the name of Ādityasena.