An Interesting Article About Some Common Surnames : Surnames Decoded
The surnames Malhotra, Arora, Kapoor, Khanna, Chopra, Nanda, Khullar, Sodhi, Bedi, Sehgal, Thapar and Mehra belong to only one broader caste “ khatri “.
As per the Government of India records, “Khatri is a popular variant of the Sanskrit word Kshatriya, which was used to describe the warrior caste among the Hindus according to the Varanashram propounded by the Shastras”.
According to the Britishers The Khatris were the backbone of Indian trade with central Asia. Due to the high values and good education they survived even in the hardest times of Aurangjeb and Shahjahan.
All the Sikh gurus were Khatri. Real names of gurus are
Guru Nanak Dev Bedi
Guru Angad Dev Trehan
Guru Amar Das Bhalla
Guru Ram Das Sodhi
Guru Arjan Dev Sodhi
Guru Har Gobind Sodhi
Guru Har Rai Sodhi
Guru Har Krishan Sodhi
Guru Tegh Bahadur Sodhi
Guru Gobind Singh Sodhi
Some of the Khatris have good history with their name and place as given below.
Arora : They belong to the Aror town (near Sukkur ) situated in the Sind province of Pakistan on the banks of Indus river hence called Arora. After the partition in 1947, maximum proportion of Aroras came to India.
Khanna : They belong to a small town Khanna in Ludhiana district of Indian Punjab. Khanna is a Punjabi word, which means one quarter (1/4 or 0.25). The city was named thus because it used to be very small, just a quarter of what a normal city should be. Khanna and Arora both are closely related to Khatri caste.
Kapoor : Kapoors are termed as descendents of Moon i.e. as white as moon. Camphor “ Hindi Kapur” is as white as full moon so termed as Kapoor. They belong to Kapurthala state of Punjab. Kapoor or Kapur is a surname in the Kaushal Gotra of the Punjabi Khatri community of India. Kapoors are Hindus in terms of religion and tradition, and belong to the Bahari Baradari, a sub-caste of Khatri.
Malhotra : Malhotra is a surname based on the name of a clan in the Khatri community. It is a modified form of Mehrotra, which is itself an extended form of Mehra (Panjabi mehra or Mera means ‘chief’ or ‘master’). Founder of the Malhotra clan is said to have been called Mehr Chand.
Now I am giving the origin of other non khatri Indian Surnames. Answer could be little lengthy but I bet at the end of show you will enjoy.
Deshpande, Deshmukh, Kulkarni & Patil : All these surnames are found predominately in Maharashtra.
Deshpande is a surname having origins in Maharashtra. The surname is also used in Karnataka. It was a title conferred on officers responsible for record keeping at Pargana level (modern equivalent of district).
The chief of the pargana were called Deshmukh.
Their equivalent at village level were Kulkarni (mainly accountants).
The persons responsible for the development and security of village were known as Patil (Village chief).
Godbole : Godbole (Marathi : गोडबोले) is a surname from Kokanastha Brahmins or Chitpavan Brahmins from Western Maharashtra (Western Coast of India), and also used by Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins. Godbole actually means “meethi zuban bolne wale translation : sweet tongued” in Marathi.
Jain : This surname is the modified name of word jaina which was derived from Sanskrit word Jina or ‘follower of Jina’. Jina, meaning ‘triumphant’, is an epithet for a saint of the Jain religion. They are mainly distributed in the Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western MP and North west Maharashtra.
Agrawal and Agarwal : Members of the Agrawal community are known for their business acumen and have for many years been influential and prosperous in India.
Agrawal means the “children of Agrasena” or the “people of Agroha “, a city in ancient Kuru Kingdom. Now it is near to the city of Hisar in Haryana said to be founded by legendery King Agrasena. He was among one of the greatest Kings of India. He was the descendant of Solar Dynasty who later adopted Vanik Dharm.
Where as Agarwals are slightly different from agrawals. According to a legend , earlier they were called as Agarwale means the inhabitants of the ancient city “Agar”. Agar is a small city located 65 kms from Ujjain. Agar was the most important city to the Parmar dynasty after Dhar and Avantika (Ujjain).
Sindhi : Unlike Hindus of India, who have a ‘gotra’, Sindhis often have a ‘nukh’, which means roots. Almost 90% surnames have been followed by “Ani” or “Ja” in Sindhis like Moolchandani, Bhavnani, Ramchandani, Advani, Raheja, Makhija etc. Ramchandani means the descendents of Ramchand, here Ramchand could be name of an ancestor or village. Same thing applies on the Juneja, Tuteja etc.
Khan : The ancient surname Khan is a contracted form of Khagan, from the Turkish language meaning “chief or ruler.” It was originally a hereditary title born by early Mongol leaders, such as the legendary Genghis Khan, but is now widely used as a surname throughout the Muslim world.
Shetty : They are Hindus and Jains from the coastal areas of Karnataka and Cauvery belt. Primarily they are farmers and pastorals but now spread in all the business domains. They are different from cognate Seth or Sethi which were basically land lords.
Brahmins : All the Brahmins were given their last names on the basis of knowledge they possessed.
Dwivedi/Trivedi/Chaturvedi were known for the number of Vedas they expertise. Same is true for Tripathi also.
Upadhyay were those who had special skills of teachings and were the spiritual advisors of the king.
Vyas or Byas were those who had got an expertise in the recital of Bhagvat Purana and Bhagvat Gita.
Pandey was the title given to the chief priests (pandits) and those who had expertise in post death rituals.
Mishra was the title given to those priests who had expertise is all kind of Brahmin duties.
Parashar : They are the ancestors of one of the greatest scholar of vedic era “Parashara”. Ancient India was controlled by northern India therefore they are mostly found in North India.
Shukla was the title given to the reciters of the Shukl Yajurveda ( Yajurveda has two parts, Shukl and Krishna ).
Verma : Verma, Varma, Burma, Barma, Vurma, Barman, Varman are the same and one and mostly the inhabitants of India and South East Asia. In ancient culture “Verma “ title was given to the kshatriya warriors who were very firm, and shield like.
Yadav : The term Yadav (or sometimes Yadava) has been interpreted to mean a descendant of “Yadu”, who was a mighty king.
The term “Yadav” covers many castes which initially had different names, Ahir in the UP, Haryana, Bihar, Punjab and Gujarat, Gavli in Maharashtra and MP, Gola in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka etc. Their traditional common business was that of herdsmen, cowherds and milksellers all over the Indian subcontinent.
Srivastava : According to one explanation, the name “Shrivastava” originates from “Shrivastu”, the former name of the Swat River, said to be the place of origin of this clan. Swat river is situated in the Khyber province of North West province. Srivastava is a common surname in Northern India, notably among Kayasthas. However, recent times have also seen this surname used in other communities. Spelling variations include Shreevastava, Shrivastav, Shrivastava, Shrivastva, Srivastav, Srivastva, Srivastava, Sriwastaw and Srivastwa
SHARMA JI I Did a lot of research for the origin of Sharma surname but got ambiguous answers. But most common and widely known sources suggests that “ancient sharmas were the upper class Brahmins who has achieved the highest level of concentrations. They were the peer Yogis who were always in joy and known as accomplished well wishers. They were living in the shelters not in the houses during the ultimate years of their lives.” Later on due to the immense respect of Sharma surname, some non Brahmins and undeserving people also started using Sharma.
An alternative English spelling of the name used in the city of Varanasi and the Indian states of Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala is “Sarma”. Some Assamese people also use Surma but that is due to the river “ Surma” flowing in the lower Assam and Sylhet district Bangladesh.
Edit on some request
In the messages and comments some of the readers requested me to tell about Tendulkar surname.
Well I will tell you about this surname but take the bonus of Ambedkar, Gavaskar, Savarkar and Mangeshkar first. “Kar” means the suffix of the village associated.
Ambedkar : The original surname Ambavadekar comes from the native village ‘Ambavade’ in Ratnagiri district. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s original surname was Sakpal but his father registered his surname Ambadawekar in school. His Brahmin teacher, Krishnaji Keshav Ambedkar, who was fond of him, changed his surname ‘Ambadawekar’ to his own surname ‘Ambedkar’ to pronounce easily in the school records.
Gavaskar : They came from the Gavaswadi Village in Kudal Taluka (Kudal is a legislative seat also) in the Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra.
Mangeshkar : Earlier the surname of Deenanath ji (Father of great Lata Mangeshkar ) was Hardikar but he changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town Mangeshi. Mangeshi is located near Priol Ponda at Goa-Maharastra border.
Savarkar : Vinayak Damodar Ji Savarkar : One of the greatest personality of Indian history had this surname. I feel immense proud to share all of you about the origin of his surname. His original surname was Bapat but his forefathers changed the surname in order to identify their family with their native village Savarwadi in Palshet village of Guhagar taluka in Konkan region. Name Savarwadi came from the plentiful trees of “Saanwari ( or Saavari ) in the area which is used to yeild a type of soft cotton Shevari
