Bengal was Buddhism's last bastion in India. Many commonly prevalent modern Bengali names still retain this long lost Buddhist flavor. These names are noticeably absent elsewhere in India. I am no expert but perhaps the peculiar pronunciation patterns of eastern Indian languages (Bangla, Oriya, Akhomiya) owe a lot to this Pali heritage? More on language later.
Aniruddha
Tathagata
Saugata
Anirban
Bodhisattwa
Sujata
Gautam
Suddhasheel
Deepankar
Sakyajit
Sanghamitra
The only really common canonical Pali name to be found throughout India is "Rahul". The original Pali meaning is "rope" and one is inclined to wonder why this should be such a favorite with parents! Though one could immediately cite Siddhartha and Amitabha in addition, I would go so far as to hazard that more than half the people bearing these names would be Bengali. speakers. I am not so sure though as to whether this Bengali naming propensity is guided by a subconscious nostalgia for the Buddhist faith or is it the liberal bhadroloke mindset that identifies with an agnostic, intellectually-oriented, humanistic religion which in modern history has been engaged with extensively by the leading lights of both Bengali and other Indian intelligentsia, from Tagore's dance dramas to Nehru's espousal of several Buddhist state symbols. Another curious thing to note about the names I have listed are that they are almost all men's names. One obvious reason is most of the above are different names for the Buddha himself. Maybe goddess worship has traditionally guided Bengali sensibilities when it comes to naming women? I don't think the Pali canon itself will be short of female personalities to choose from, with Buddha deciding to accept bhikkhunis into his fold as well. No one probably names their daughter after Amrapali because she was the nagar-badhu or courtesan and although she is celebrated as an absolute heroine in our lore, our narrow South Asian patriarchal morality problematizes such names ( take Draupadi for example).
The other thing is there are a lot of traces of tantric buddhism (which was the most popular brand of the religion in its later days in Bengal) that could until very recently be seen in Bengali folk culture. I don't know whether we still have Jagaddhatri pujo in Calcutta. For the uninitiated it is yet another mother goddess worshipping Bengali ritual (ah feminist people that we are!) that happens every year giving unemployed youth in industry starved Bengal another channel for whiling away their time. Add to that the very folk Bengali goddesses : Manasa, Setala and the like , and we do have an impressive regiment of amazons! I have even seen Shani temples in Bengal : do they come in any other part of the country? Anyway the original point was I remember immensely enjoying my visits to the various Jagaddhatri and Kali puja ceremonies as a kid, and what would fascinate me a lot other than Maa Kaali's demon devouring fierceness, would be these bloodthirsty witchlike apparitions by the goddess's side. They were called Dakini and Jogini and they were supposed to prowl cremation grounds feeding on little kids or so I was told. No wonder they made a significant impression on me. Later I would hear those names again, in the context of Tibetan art. Some of those fierce-looking Tibetan dancing masks and idols also represent Misses Dakini and Jogini, Tibetan Buddhism itself being of a Tantric variety and having been considerably influenced by medieval Buddhist Bengali scholar Atish Deepankara, who was the first notable Bengali to make it to Tibet before Ram Mohun and Baboo Hurree Chunder Mookerjee managed to repeat the feat.
Meanwhile I will keep adding to the list as and when I happen to think of more such examples. Sorry about the title; it is admittedly mundane. Apologies especially reserved for those who thought this would be an article on West Bengali politics. But it's a nifty thing to notice, isn't it? All these little Vajrayana Buddhist links tying a predominantly Austro-Asiatic riverine people speaking an Indo-Aryan language to a Mongoloid people speaking sino-Tibetan and living in the highest reaches of the planet, and beyond, into Mongolia and Kalmykia. Aum Mani Padme Hum!
Aniruddha
Tathagata
Saugata
Anirban
Bodhisattwa
Sujata
Gautam
Suddhasheel
Deepankar
Sakyajit
Sanghamitra
The only really common canonical Pali name to be found throughout India is "Rahul". The original Pali meaning is "rope" and one is inclined to wonder why this should be such a favorite with parents! Though one could immediately cite Siddhartha and Amitabha in addition, I would go so far as to hazard that more than half the people bearing these names would be Bengali. speakers. I am not so sure though as to whether this Bengali naming propensity is guided by a subconscious nostalgia for the Buddhist faith or is it the liberal bhadroloke mindset that identifies with an agnostic, intellectually-oriented, humanistic religion which in modern history has been engaged with extensively by the leading lights of both Bengali and other Indian intelligentsia, from Tagore's dance dramas to Nehru's espousal of several Buddhist state symbols. Another curious thing to note about the names I have listed are that they are almost all men's names. One obvious reason is most of the above are different names for the Buddha himself. Maybe goddess worship has traditionally guided Bengali sensibilities when it comes to naming women? I don't think the Pali canon itself will be short of female personalities to choose from, with Buddha deciding to accept bhikkhunis into his fold as well. No one probably names their daughter after Amrapali because she was the nagar-badhu or courtesan and although she is celebrated as an absolute heroine in our lore, our narrow South Asian patriarchal morality problematizes such names ( take Draupadi for example).
The other thing is there are a lot of traces of tantric buddhism (which was the most popular brand of the religion in its later days in Bengal) that could until very recently be seen in Bengali folk culture. I don't know whether we still have Jagaddhatri pujo in Calcutta. For the uninitiated it is yet another mother goddess worshipping Bengali ritual (ah feminist people that we are!) that happens every year giving unemployed youth in industry starved Bengal another channel for whiling away their time. Add to that the very folk Bengali goddesses : Manasa, Setala and the like , and we do have an impressive regiment of amazons! I have even seen Shani temples in Bengal : do they come in any other part of the country? Anyway the original point was I remember immensely enjoying my visits to the various Jagaddhatri and Kali puja ceremonies as a kid, and what would fascinate me a lot other than Maa Kaali's demon devouring fierceness, would be these bloodthirsty witchlike apparitions by the goddess's side. They were called Dakini and Jogini and they were supposed to prowl cremation grounds feeding on little kids or so I was told. No wonder they made a significant impression on me. Later I would hear those names again, in the context of Tibetan art. Some of those fierce-looking Tibetan dancing masks and idols also represent Misses Dakini and Jogini, Tibetan Buddhism itself being of a Tantric variety and having been considerably influenced by medieval Buddhist Bengali scholar Atish Deepankara, who was the first notable Bengali to make it to Tibet before Ram Mohun and Baboo Hurree Chunder Mookerjee managed to repeat the feat.
Meanwhile I will keep adding to the list as and when I happen to think of more such examples. Sorry about the title; it is admittedly mundane. Apologies especially reserved for those who thought this would be an article on West Bengali politics. But it's a nifty thing to notice, isn't it? All these little Vajrayana Buddhist links tying a predominantly Austro-Asiatic riverine people speaking an Indo-Aryan language to a Mongoloid people speaking sino-Tibetan and living in the highest reaches of the planet, and beyond, into Mongolia and Kalmykia. Aum Mani Padme Hum!
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2 comments:
Extremely interesting topic! Just wondering: are there specific resources that you used or this is stuff you generally picked up?
Also, re: Rahul, Shah Rukh Khan may have had something to do with its popularity in the past few decades ;)
@Tista : the thing about names is pure observation. I am not aware nor have the means to verify if there are scholarly works on the subject. Of course a lot of it is from reading history and draws on an eclectic array of sources eg it is true that under the Pala dynasty Buddhism was flourishing in Bengal, when it was on the backfoot in the rest of India, that Deepankar reformed Tibetan Buddhism, and Ram Mohun visited Tibet in his youth. You made me think of actually compiling a bibliography and citing references for this post.
About Rahul, yeah that and Rahul Dravid perhaps. Have seen more than a fair share of Puja,Priya and Anjali-s as well :P
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