Why do we all have last names or family names totally non-related to us? Most of us have last names that are not connected to what we do. They are not even what our own parents nor our grand parents. The family names originally created applied to one person or their sons. That is because the professions were passed on from parent to children, and mostly father to son. Blacksmiths son was a blacksmith, and similarly the goldsmith. In India also the professions were passed on from father to sons. Daughters did not get the family name, and borrowed from their husbands. The professions also had some context to their caste or sub-caste. Kulkarni, Trivedi, Dvivedi, Chaturvedi, Joshi (should really be called JyOthishi) etc. Brahmin names are also irrelevant to peoples life of profession these days. A Kulkarni may be owning a business or even be a soldier or a military officer. He is not a Kulkarni anymore! Someone with 2, 3, or 4 veda titles may know nothing of vedas, but may be good in c++ programming or Hadoop! Rao, Raj, Roy, Raya etc. was a title for a ruler or a king, even though of a small territory. Now people with these family names may a farmer or a doctor. A Chatterjee, Mukherjee or Banerjee which all were really ChattOpaadhyaaya, Mukhyopadhhyaaya or Bandhopaadhyaaya were different levels of Upaadhyaaya (meaning teacher or professor). People who have inherited these family names, did not inherit the profession at all. Patel, Shah, Singh, Vaidya, Shetty etc. have the same irrelevance. Bhat, Bhatt or Bhatta etc. have similar blind following with no professional connection. It is like children and grandchildren of people who were given accomplishment titles like Bhaarata Ratna, Padma - Shree, BhushaNa and VibhooshaNa simply using it for generations to come. Similar comments apply to Military ranks like General, musical decorative titles like Pandit, Sangeeta Vidwaan or educational accomplishments of Ph.D. MD, etc. Did I forget your family name? Think about your own family name. Even if your family name came for the root village of long gone great grandfather, you may not have one square foot of land, or a family house or not even visited once in your life. Among Brahmins, some are using their gOtra, which really referred to one of the saptarshi names like Bharadvaaja, Kaahyapa, VasishTha or AathrEya. Sikhs are using the same name - Singh (for men) or Kaur (for women). My fathers gOtra was Bhaaradvaaja. In my world, it has no relevance at all. Think of you family name.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:30:24 +0000
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