{"id":71707,"date":"2016-04-11T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=71707"},"modified":"2016-08-18T12:30:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T11:30:59","slug":"romance-of-names-their-environmental-and-religious-significance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/04\/romance-of-names-their-environmental-and-religious-significance\/","title":{"rendered":"Romance of Names \u2013 Their Environmental and Religious Significance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ravi<\/a>What\u2019s in a name?<\/p>\n

\u201cA rose by any other name would smell as sweet\u201d, Shakespeare had written in the play Romeo and Juliet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But in this small essay I argue that many Indian names do mean something definite and promote a positive attitude towards our physical environment — a healthy environment that promotes peace and amity.<\/p>\n

An Indian child is given a name very carefully. Usually a priest is asked what name a newborn baby should be given. The priest after consulting his almanac suggests some names and leaves it to the baby\u2019s parents to pick up one.<\/p>\n

There are countless numbers of names for people in India and new ones are being added every year. However, many names among the Hindu population have special significance. I will try to analyse some of these and what they mean or signify.<\/p>\n

Some Common Names (For Boys or Girls): <\/strong><\/p>\n

Aakash, Anil, Chand, \u00a0Daya, Dewakar, Dharam, Dinkar, Ganga, Gulab, \u00a0Kiran, Kusum, Mangal, Pran, Prakash, Prithvi,\u00a0 Ratan Rakesh, Rajni, Ravi,\u00a0 Shabnam, Surya, \u00a0Savitri,\u00a0 Som, Sunil, Tara, Ved, \u00a0Vijay and countless others.<\/p>\n

Of These, Several Relate to Our Physical Environment:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aakash \u2013 sky<\/p>\n

Anil or Sunil — \u00a0air<\/p>\n

Bhaskara, Dewakar, Dinkar, Ravi, Surya \u2013 the Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

Chand, Som, Shashi \u2013 the Moon<\/em><\/p>\n

Prakash, Kiran \u2013 rays (usually of the sun)<\/p>\n

Ganga \u2013 the River — \u00a0jal<\/em> or water<\/p>\n

Pran \u2013 life<\/p>\n

Kusum,\u00a0 Shabnam \u2014dew<\/p>\n

Kusum also is a name of a flower<\/p>\n

Gulab\u00a0 — rose flower<\/p>\n

Mangal \u2013 the (planet) Mars<\/p>\n

Prithvi \u2013 the Earth<\/p>\n

Rajni \u2013 night<\/p>\n

Tara — star<\/p>\n

This is an indication that our common names refer to the physical environment that we live in and this helps us, even if unconsciously, to appreciate out environment and not to degrade or pollute it.<\/p>\n

Many people are also given names after Hindu deities. \u00a0Some of these are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ram, Krishan, Radha, Bajrangi, Shiva, Ganesh, Durga, Saraswati to name a few of the several Hindu Gods and goddesses. These are also used for naming babies at birth just as Mary, Christine<\/em> are common names given to many female babies<\/p>\n

Our slogan \u201cBharat mata ki jai\u201d or \u201cJai Hind\u201d means Hail to our motherland.<\/em><\/p>\n

We treat our country and the land on which the country and its vast biodiversity are located as our motherland.\u00a0 Again, this signifies our respect and gratitude to the land that gives us life and substance. We must keep it clean and pure so that we can survive on it without overexploiting nature and helping maintain a healthy and peaceful environment.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Dr Ravi P Bhatia \u2013 <\/em>Educationist and Peace Researcher. Retired Professor, Delhi University.\u00a0 ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s in a name? \u201cA rose by any other name would smell as sweet\u201d, Shakespeare had written in the play Romeo and Juliet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}