Indian Epigraphy c16.s7.9

c16.s7.9

A tendency to distinguish the names of persons belonging to the different Varṇas gradually developed. The Manusmṛti (II. 31-32), for instance, suggests that an upapada suggestive of śarman (happiness), rakṣā (protection), puṣṭi (prosperity) and presya (service) should be added to the names of Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas and Śūdras respectively. This soon developed into the prescription of later authorities to the effect that the words *śarman* or *deva*, *varman* or *trātṛ*, *bhūti* or *datta*, and *dāsa* should be suffixed to personal names of the four *Varṇas* respectively.¹ Epigraphical evidence shows, however, that this custom was not popular long before the Gupta age, although it may be noticed in some cases in earlier records. The issuers of many coins who, flourished in several localities in North India shortly before and after the beginning of the Christian era, had names ending in *mitra*. Among ruling families, the name-ending *varman* is for the first time found popular in the Pallava dynasty of Kāñcī, which seems to have become powerful about the close of the third century A.D., although the Pallavas appear to have originally been Brāhmaṇas of the Bhāradvāja *gotra*.² The successors of Mayū-raśarman, the Brāhmaṇa founder of the Kadamba dynasty of Banavāsi, assumed names ending in *varman*.³ In the Mattepad plates of the 5th century A.D., the names of a number of Brāhmaṇa donees are mentioned with the suffix *ajja* (Sanskrit *ārya*; cf. the family name Ayyar and personal names like Rāmayya in particular areas of the South).⁴