India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s15.1

c8.s15.1

Personal names always contain valuable linguistic and chronological data. Proper names of different periods are marked by special features characteristic of that age. For example, the usual method of referring to a person in the *Ṛigveda* is to give his own name along with another epithet connected with his father's name. In the later Vedic literature it was the *gotra* name. Sometimes the personal name was coupled with the name of the country or locality, *e.g.* Bhīma Vaidarbha (*Ait. Br.*, vii.34). In the *Vaṁśa* lists of the late Brāhmaṇa period we find the frequent use of metronymics. (P. V. Kane, Naming a Child or Person, *I. H. Q.*, June 1938, pp. 227-228). On the other hand there is no evidence in Vedic literature of individual names being derived from the names of Vedic gods or stars. Such naming came into vogue in much later times with a change in religious beliefs.