History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c23.257

v2.c23.257

(7) Baud. gṛ. prescribes that the name may be derived from a sage or a deity or an ancestor.⁵⁵⁸ The Mānava gṛhya, however, forbids the giving of a name of a deity itself, but allows the giving of a name derived from the name of a deity or a nakṣatra. Examples of names derived from sages would be Vāsiṣṭha, Nārada &c. and of names taken from deities would be Viṣṇu, Śiva &c. The Mit. on Yāj. I. 12 quotes a passage of Śaṅkha that the name should be connected with one's family deity. It should be noticed that in modern times most names in many parts of India are the names of deities or of heroes supposed to be *avatāras* of deities. In Vedic literature hardly any human being bears the name of any of the Vedic gods (Indra, Mitra, Pūṣan &c). There are only a few exceptions such as that of Bhṛgu (in Tai. Up. III. 1) who is said to have learnt from his father called Varuṇa and in the Praśna Up. (I. 1) there is Sauryāyaṇi Gārgya whose name is derived from Sūrya. But in the Vedic Literature persons have names derived from the names of gods, such as Indrota (Indra + ūta, protected), Indradyumna. The names that occur in the Mahābhāṣya such as Devadatta, Yajñadatta, Vāyudatta (vol. II. p. 296), Viṣṇumitra (vol. I. pp. 41 and 359), Bṛhaspatidattaka (or Bṛhaspatika), Prajāpatidattaka (or-patika), Bhānudattaka (or Bhānuka) and others set out in the Mahābhāṣya (vol. II. p. 425) exemplify the rule of the Mānavagṛhya. It is difficult to say when the very names of deities began generally to be borne by human beings. Probably the practice began in the first centuries of the Christian era. From the fifth century onwards we have historic examples of such names, e. g. in the Eran stone inscriptions of Budhagupta dated in the Gupta saṁvat 165 i. e. 484-5 A. D. (Gupta Inscriptions No. 19) there is a brāhmaṇa Indra-Viṣṇu, son of Varuṇa-Viṣṇu, son of Hari-Viṣṇu.