Indian Epigraphy c16.s7.18

c16.s7.18

Family names derived from official or professional designations (e.g. Śreṣṭhin, Senāpati, etc.) are met with especially in medieval records. The original habitat of the family of the Brāhmaṇa donee is often indicated in the copper-plate grants. The South Indian type of family names which are generally those of the villages to which the families belong or originally belonged, is noticed in medieval inscriptions. Some medieval records of Bengal (e.g. the Mehar plate of Dāmodara¹) mention the Brāhmaṇa donees often with reference to their original home, e.g. Kesarakonī ‘one having the original home of one’s family at Kesarakonā’. Such appellations are called gāñi (from Sanskrit grāmīṇa). In Mithilā, the localities known as mūla-grāma are mentioned, since the medieval age, along with personal names, as in Sodarapura-sam-śrī-Rāmadevaśarmā, in which sam probably stands for sambhūta, ‘sprung’.