India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s4.7

c8.s4.7

*MOTHER*—The practice of naming sons after their mothers found in the *Vaṃśa* lists was also known to Pāṇini. Sometimes the son is extolled for the virtues of his mother, *e.g.* *bhadramātura*, son of a noble mother (IV.1.115) and *kalyāṇineya*, son of a beautiful mother (IV.1.126). In cases of doubtful parentage the son was named according to the mother's *gotra*, *e.g.* *Gārgika*, son of Gārgī a female descendant of the Garga *gotra*; but such names after the mother involved social opprobrium (*kutsana*, IV.1.147).