Question:
I would be further interested to know why the Parsis (for instance) would have abandoned their ancestral surnaming style (tribal, was it? Or generational patronymic?) at such a late point in their long and distinguished history. Any ideas? It's as though Colonel Smithers of the EIC suddenly changed his surname to "Colonel".
I shall attempt an answer, based on my general knowledge.
It appears that use of surnames in the Marathi and Gujarati areas which not go back more than 300/400 years. Surnames were not in use in India in ancient times and almost till the end of the first millennium CE. Thousands of names are known from Sanskrit and Prakrit texts, rock-cut inscriptions, copper plates, coins etc. They are almost always single names. Very occasionally, we do come across the use of the name of a parent along with the name of the individual. For example, an important king of the Satavahana dynasty which ruled from Junnar (Poona District) or Paithan (Auragabad District) is called Gautamiputra Satakarni. Here Gautami is the name of the mother and Satakarni is her son (putra). This was done more as a mark of respect for the parent.
I would think that the patronymics and the surnames started crystallizing around the end of the first millennium. Some of the common surnames of today are corruptions of certain dynastic names from the Indian Middle Ages, such as Parmar to Pawar, Shilahar to Shelar, Chalukya to Salunke. In the second millennium started the use of surnames derived from the occupations such as Joshi from Jyotishi (village astrologer), Kulkarni for the village clerk, Deshpande for the clerk of a larger area or Desh, Patil/Patel for the headman etc. Later, surnames arose from the trades such as Sutar (carpenter), Lohar (blacksmith), Sonar (goldsmith) etc. or from physical and mental attributes such as Thite (a short person), Godbole (a smooth talker). Surnames also arose from places of origin such as Kolhatkar (a person hailing from the village of Kolthar (District Ratnagiri), Nimbkhedkar from the village of Nimbkhed etc. This is a complex subject and only a trained sociologist will be able to do justice to it. Though the surnames had started forming, it appears that they were little used.
Patronymics came in wide use from the middle of the 16th century, probably due to Muslim influence, as evidenced by an occasional use of the Arab 'bin' (son of) in Hindu names in the early days. Most names that we come across from that time till almost the end of the 18th century are a combination of the person's and his father's names, such as Dadoji Konddev (Shivaji's mentor in early days), Balaji Aavji and Prahlad Niraji (Shivaji's ministers), Balaji Vishvanath (the first Peshwa), Balaji Bajirao (the third Peshwa), Madhavrao Ballal (his son and the forth Peshwa).
Use of surnames really became widespread with the advent of the British administration. This was perhaps caused by the needs of a more systematic administration that demanded more clarity in identifying individuals and the facility of documentation and reading created by the widening use of the printing press. Thus came into being the current method of the individual's name, father's name and the surname.
The above is as regards Hindu Marathi surnames. An interesting thing happened with the Parsis. Apparently they had not brought any surnames with them when the migrated into India in the 14th century because all their present day surnames appear to be of the post-migration origin. Surnames in current use among parsis appear to be of 4 types - derived from a placename, an occupation of a new type that came into being under the British presence, a traditional occupation or a religious function. In the first category are surnames like Bharucha (from Bharuch or Broach), Khambatta (from Khambatt or Cambay), Balsara (from Valsad or Balsad), Surti (from Surat), Navsaria (from Navsari) etc. In the second category are names like Contractor, Vakil, Doctor - yes, this a surname for some Pasis -, Daruvala (dealer in alcoholic spirits), Batliwala (dealer in bottles) etc. In the third category are surnames like Gandhi (dealer in herbal medicines), Mehta (accountant) etc. Parsis share these surnames with the remaining Gujarati community. In the fourth category are surnames like Dastur (Zoroastian priest).
I hope I have succeeded to some extent in answering the question.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
VS Naipaul and the Hanuman House
The Hanuman House, the ancestral house of the Tulsi family in Arwacas, which is almost like a human character in VS Naipaul's novel 'A House for Mr. Biswas', is in reality the family house called 'The Lion House' of the Capildeo family and is situated on the Main Street of the Indian-dominated town called Chaguanas, which lies a little to the south of the capital city of Port of Spain. Naipaul's mother was one of the 10 daughters of Pandit Capildeo. He had come to Trinidad in the 1890's from Gorakhpur in Eastern UP as indentured labour and became the community leader of the Bihari Hindu community of indentured laborers.
The house, no more lived in, has been restored by the Capildeo descendents. The website http://www.thelionhouse.com/ is about the house and gives glimpses of the lives of indentured labour in Trinidad. Listers interested in them will find a visit to the site of interest.
Indian Coinage
A very interesting site for pictures and history of Indian coinage is http://www.bharatcoins.com/indiancoins.html. The links Edward VII, George V and George VI show, among others, the pie = the third of a paisa = the twelfth part of the Anna. Another interesting site for pictures of old currency notes is http://masoodmemon.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/rupees-at-the-time-of-british-empire/
Many of us remember with nostalgia the pre-1957 coins such as the square-shaped two-anna piece, the scallop edged one-anna piece, the annular one-paisa piece. Rupee, 8 anna, 4 anna, 2 anna and 1 anna pieces, carrying pictures of George V or George VI were very much around till the mid-60's.
Gulf countries and territories like Oman and Dubai, prior to the discovery of oil, looked mainly to India for their commerce and were heavily influenced by Indian customs and practices. Faisal bin Turki was Imam of Muscat and Oman - as the sultans were called in earlier days - between 1888 and 1913. I have, in my small collection of coins, two copper coins of 1/4 anna coined during his rule. The ruler is called Feessul bin Turkee, Imam of Muscat and Oman. 'Anna' was a direct import from British India. One thousandth of an Omani Rial is today called 'a baisa', clearly derived from 'paisa', as Arabic does not much distinguish between the 'b' and 'p' sounds. The site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatari_riyal says that Qatar used the Indian currency till as recently as 1966. Another site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omani_rial tells us that the Indian Rupee and the Maria Theresa dollars were the currency in the region of the Trucial Coast before 1940. British interests in on the Trucial Coast were the responsibility of the Political Department under the Viceroy.
Talking of old coins, I have a Rupee coin (looks almost pure silver) of 1914 with the picture of George V, King Emperor, a 1/2 Rupee coin of 1946 with the picture of George VI, King Emperor and a one-paisa annular coin of 1946. I have another 1 paisa coin of one of the princely states, though the name is indistinct. Incidentally, I also have a Maria Theresa dollar of 1780.
Many of us remember with nostalgia the pre-1957 coins such as the square-shaped two-anna piece, the scallop edged one-anna piece, the annular one-paisa piece. Rupee, 8 anna, 4 anna, 2 anna and 1 anna pieces, carrying pictures of George V or George VI were very much around till the mid-60's.
Gulf countries and territories like Oman and Dubai, prior to the discovery of oil, looked mainly to India for their commerce and were heavily influenced by Indian customs and practices. Faisal bin Turki was Imam of Muscat and Oman - as the sultans were called in earlier days - between 1888 and 1913. I have, in my small collection of coins, two copper coins of 1/4 anna coined during his rule. The ruler is called Feessul bin Turkee, Imam of Muscat and Oman. 'Anna' was a direct import from British India. One thousandth of an Omani Rial is today called 'a baisa', clearly derived from 'paisa', as Arabic does not much distinguish between the 'b' and 'p' sounds. The site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatari_riyal says that Qatar used the Indian currency till as recently as 1966. Another site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omani_rial tells us that the Indian Rupee and the Maria Theresa dollars were the currency in the region of the Trucial Coast before 1940. British interests in on the Trucial Coast were the responsibility of the Political Department under the Viceroy.
Talking of old coins, I have a Rupee coin (looks almost pure silver) of 1914 with the picture of George V, King Emperor, a 1/2 Rupee coin of 1946 with the picture of George VI, King Emperor and a one-paisa annular coin of 1946. I have another 1 paisa coin of one of the princely states, though the name is indistinct. Incidentally, I also have a Maria Theresa dollar of 1780.
What did Indians eat before chilli
What did the Indians eat before the chilli entered India as an import brought in by the Portuguese from South America. Today, one cannot think of Indian food without hot chilli. (A similar question about the Italians. What did they eat before tomato made its appearance?)
I have asked this question to several people, though none has come out with a good enough answer. Cooking not being in the main line of Sanskrit scholarship, I do not know of any old work devoted to this topic, though, I am sure, there would be at least a few on shelves of libraries that specialize in old manuscripts. I can only give a few pointers based on general knowledge.
Pre-chilli Indian food must have been pretty bland, somewhat like today's Japanese food of the vegetarian variety. For over two millennia, Indian food has been mainly vegetarian, avoiding meats generally. and fish in most places. Though India was known for its spices, most of the strong spices, miri or pepper for example, grow only in the extreme south of India. Given the difficulties of transport, it would not have been generally available to
the rest of the country.
Kautilya, in his Arthashastra, mentions the following in Ch. 2 at p.34 under the heading 'Tiktavarga' or 'Pungent class': "Long pepper, black pepper, ginger, cumin seed, kiratatikta (Agathotes Chirayta), white mustard, coriander, choraka (a plant), damanaka (Artemisia Indica), maruvaka (Vangueria Spinosa), sigru (Hyperanthera Moringa), and the like together with their roots (kánda) come under the group of pungent substances
(tiktavarga)." (taken from the English translation available at scribd.com).
Most of these botanical terms can be traced on the internet, though I could not identify any of them with equivalents I can recognize.
The Russian traveller Afanasii Nikitin, who spent 3 years in South India from 1471 to 1474, has the following to say about the food habits of the Hindus: "Hindus do not eat any meat, neither beef, nor mutton, nor fowl, nor fish, nor pork, although they have many pigs. They eat twice a day, but not at night, and drink neither wine nor mead. And they do not eat or drink with the Muslims. Even with each other, they do not eat or drink, nor with their wives. They eat rice, and kichri with butter, and various greens, and cook
these with butter and milk, and eat only with their right hands, and take nothing with their left hands. They have not heard of knives or spoons. And, on their journeys, they each carry their own pots to cook porridge. They turn away from Muslims, to prevent them from looking at their pots or food. If a Muslim casts his eye on the food, then the Hindu will not eat it. That is why they eat covered with a napkin, so that nobody would see." (For those interested, an excellent translation of his travel account is available at
http://tangentialia.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/afanasii-nikitins-journey-across-three-seas/
The unknown seer who composed the famous 'Rudram' (Prayer to Lord Rudra - another form of the more well-known Shiva) in Yajurveda asked for the following in blessing: 'Milk, Honey, fruits...paddy, barley, black gram, gingilly seeds, green gram, castor oil seeds, wheat and White Bengal gram, with elongated bushy millets (small paddy) and fine Superior paddy and excellent roots and all readily available grains in the Jungles'. This gives us a general idea of what ancient Indians were eating.
I have asked this question to several people, though none has come out with a good enough answer. Cooking not being in the main line of Sanskrit scholarship, I do not know of any old work devoted to this topic, though, I am sure, there would be at least a few on shelves of libraries that specialize in old manuscripts. I can only give a few pointers based on general knowledge.
Pre-chilli Indian food must have been pretty bland, somewhat like today's Japanese food of the vegetarian variety. For over two millennia, Indian food has been mainly vegetarian, avoiding meats generally. and fish in most places. Though India was known for its spices, most of the strong spices, miri or pepper for example, grow only in the extreme south of India. Given the difficulties of transport, it would not have been generally available to
the rest of the country.
Kautilya, in his Arthashastra, mentions the following in Ch. 2 at p.34 under the heading 'Tiktavarga' or 'Pungent class': "Long pepper, black pepper, ginger, cumin seed, kiratatikta (Agathotes Chirayta), white mustard, coriander, choraka (a plant), damanaka (Artemisia Indica), maruvaka (Vangueria Spinosa), sigru (Hyperanthera Moringa), and the like together with their roots (kánda) come under the group of pungent substances
(tiktavarga)." (taken from the English translation available at scribd.com).
Most of these botanical terms can be traced on the internet, though I could not identify any of them with equivalents I can recognize.
The Russian traveller Afanasii Nikitin, who spent 3 years in South India from 1471 to 1474, has the following to say about the food habits of the Hindus: "Hindus do not eat any meat, neither beef, nor mutton, nor fowl, nor fish, nor pork, although they have many pigs. They eat twice a day, but not at night, and drink neither wine nor mead. And they do not eat or drink with the Muslims. Even with each other, they do not eat or drink, nor with their wives. They eat rice, and kichri with butter, and various greens, and cook
these with butter and milk, and eat only with their right hands, and take nothing with their left hands. They have not heard of knives or spoons. And, on their journeys, they each carry their own pots to cook porridge. They turn away from Muslims, to prevent them from looking at their pots or food. If a Muslim casts his eye on the food, then the Hindu will not eat it. That is why they eat covered with a napkin, so that nobody would see." (For those interested, an excellent translation of his travel account is available at
http://tangentialia.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/afanasii-nikitins-journey-across-three-seas/
The unknown seer who composed the famous 'Rudram' (Prayer to Lord Rudra - another form of the more well-known Shiva) in Yajurveda asked for the following in blessing: 'Milk, Honey, fruits...paddy, barley, black gram, gingilly seeds, green gram, castor oil seeds, wheat and White Bengal gram, with elongated bushy millets (small paddy) and fine Superior paddy and excellent roots and all readily available grains in the Jungles'. This gives us a general idea of what ancient Indians were eating.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A convention in Sanskrit literature for representing numerals
What you are referring to is a Sanskrit convention that attaches, based on Indian mythology, puranaas, and other traditional literature, certain numerals with names of deities, natural phenomena, parts of the human body etc.
Instead of writing those numbers, the associated names could be used by an author and the reader could conjecture at the underlying numbers. This was particularly of use when putting down a number in a stanza as that gave the writer the freedom to use an alternate for the number that would agree with the meter. (As you are perhaps aware, most Sanskrit writing, including works on subjects like jyotisha - a mix of astronomical calculations of position of heavenly bodies and astrological predictions - was composed in meters, perhaps to make it easy to learn by heart.)
As an example, see the following from Leelavati, a composition of Bhaskara (12th century) that deals with arithmetic, some algebra and some geometry. Here Bhaskara gives two formulas about the relation between the diameter and the circumference of a circle. In the first he proposes that the diameter be multiplied by 3927, and the product divided by 1250; the quotient will be a very precise circumference. He also states that as a broad calculation, diameter multiplied by 22 and divided by 7 gives a result for practical use. His exact verse for this is as follows: (Transliteration coded as for Itrans)
vyaase bhanandaagnihate vibhakte khabaaNasuuryaiH paridhiH susuukShmaH | dwaavi.nshatinighne vihR^ite.atha shailaiH sthuulothavaa.asyaadvyavahaarayogyaH ||
This translates as follows: When the diameter (vyaasa) is multiplied by bha nanda agni (representing respectively 27 9 3 i.e. 3927), and divided by kha baana suurya (representing 0 5 12 i.e. 1250) , it gives an accurate measure of the circumference. When the diameter is multiplied by dwaa+vi.nshati (22, the actual number) and divided by shailas, it gives a result which is a rough measure. [The number 7 is represented by shaila or mountain - the Sanskrit literary tradition counts 7 mountains as kulashailas or major mountains. These are i) Mahendra ii) Malaya iii) Sahya iv) Shuktiman v) R^ikSha vi) Vindhya vii) paariyaatra. All these are identifiable. Sahya is Sahyaadri, parallel to the western coastline, Shuktimaan is the Himalaya, R^ikSha is the Aravali, Vindhya is the Central Indian Range etc.]
To explain this further, bha is the sky or a constellation. There are 27 stellar constellations in the Hindu tradition. Nanda is the dynasty which Chandragupta Maurya, a contemporary of Alexander, overthrew to found his own empire. The number 9 is traditionally associated with the Nandas. Agni (fire) is associated with 3 as there were 3 types of agnis in the Hindu ritualistic tradition. Moving further, kha is the sky, associated with emptiness, or 0. 5 is baana or arrow. Why? The convoluted answer is that the God of Carnal Love, Madana (Indian Cupid) is armed with 5 arrows. One of his alternative names is pa~ncasaayaka - the one with five arrows. Thus the number 5 is associated with baana or arrow. 12 is associated with the Sun God.
As you must have by now realized, these words are used as shorthands or alternatives for names of numerals. There are several ways of doing this as Sanskrit traditionally has several alternative words to describe the same thing, most describing some peculiar attribute of that thing. This increases the variety of ways in which a thing can be described. The reader, who is supposed to well-armed with the knowledge of the traditional literature, can easily cut his way through this delightful confusion!
Instead of writing those numbers, the associated names could be used by an author and the reader could conjecture at the underlying numbers. This was particularly of use when putting down a number in a stanza as that gave the writer the freedom to use an alternate for the number that would agree with the meter. (As you are perhaps aware, most Sanskrit writing, including works on subjects like jyotisha - a mix of astronomical calculations of position of heavenly bodies and astrological predictions - was composed in meters, perhaps to make it easy to learn by heart.)
As an example, see the following from Leelavati, a composition of Bhaskara (12th century) that deals with arithmetic, some algebra and some geometry. Here Bhaskara gives two formulas about the relation between the diameter and the circumference of a circle. In the first he proposes that the diameter be multiplied by 3927, and the product divided by 1250; the quotient will be a very precise circumference. He also states that as a broad calculation, diameter multiplied by 22 and divided by 7 gives a result for practical use. His exact verse for this is as follows: (Transliteration coded as for Itrans)
vyaase bhanandaagnihate vibhakte khabaaNasuuryaiH paridhiH susuukShmaH | dwaavi.nshatinighne vihR^ite.atha shailaiH sthuulothavaa.asyaadvyavahaarayogyaH ||
This translates as follows: When the diameter (vyaasa) is multiplied by bha nanda agni (representing respectively 27 9 3 i.e. 3927), and divided by kha baana suurya (representing 0 5 12 i.e. 1250) , it gives an accurate measure of the circumference. When the diameter is multiplied by dwaa+vi.nshati (22, the actual number) and divided by shailas, it gives a result which is a rough measure. [The number 7 is represented by shaila or mountain - the Sanskrit literary tradition counts 7 mountains as kulashailas or major mountains. These are i) Mahendra ii) Malaya iii) Sahya iv) Shuktiman v) R^ikSha vi) Vindhya vii) paariyaatra. All these are identifiable. Sahya is Sahyaadri, parallel to the western coastline, Shuktimaan is the Himalaya, R^ikSha is the Aravali, Vindhya is the Central Indian Range etc.]
To explain this further, bha is the sky or a constellation. There are 27 stellar constellations in the Hindu tradition. Nanda is the dynasty which Chandragupta Maurya, a contemporary of Alexander, overthrew to found his own empire. The number 9 is traditionally associated with the Nandas. Agni (fire) is associated with 3 as there were 3 types of agnis in the Hindu ritualistic tradition. Moving further, kha is the sky, associated with emptiness, or 0. 5 is baana or arrow. Why? The convoluted answer is that the God of Carnal Love, Madana (Indian Cupid) is armed with 5 arrows. One of his alternative names is pa~ncasaayaka - the one with five arrows. Thus the number 5 is associated with baana or arrow. 12 is associated with the Sun God.
As you must have by now realized, these words are used as shorthands or alternatives for names of numerals. There are several ways of doing this as Sanskrit traditionally has several alternative words to describe the same thing, most describing some peculiar attribute of that thing. This increases the variety of ways in which a thing can be described. The reader, who is supposed to well-armed with the knowledge of the traditional literature, can easily cut his way through this delightful confusion!
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