A JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNTRODDEN PATH

  OF NAMES AND SURNAMES All people have names, many have surnames and a select few have ‘The Surname’. Ask anyone in Bollywood to Business, Politics to Legalese and you will know the hierarchies maintained on basis of the category to which you belong. Interestingly, none of our Gods, Avatars, Prophets or mythological heroes had surnames. Rama or Ravana, Krishna or Indra, neither had, nor required any surnames. Yudhisthira and his brothers did call themselves ‘Pandavas’ but neither did they add it after their names, nor did their successors Parikshit or Janmejaya add it as a surname after their names. Even most historical figures did not have surnames, whether it be Alexander, Ashoka, Prophet Mohammad, Charlemagne or Samudragupta. Some did add honorifics or taglines like ‘the Great’ or ‘Vikramaditya’ but those were not carried forward to the next generation. Probably, if you have ‘the Name’, you do not need a surname. Often, surnames were given on the basis of the occupation o...