Hey Prabdab, Prabhaf, Praby, Prabhu and even Rabbit. These are exhibits of the butchery of my beautiful name Prabhav. The name Prabhav is derived from the ancient language of Sanskrit and is quite a rare name in India. The Sanskrit meaning of my name is the "Place of Origination of the Universe". I'm pretty important eh? In addition to this meaning Prabhav is one of the thousand names for the Hindu Lord Vishnu (Creator of the Universe). In reference to the locations of Prabhav's, we are quite well spread out in India, covering almost every city in India. Thus, as you can see my name is brimming with cultural and historical richness, however it doesn't stop there because my surname carries a lot of weight as well!
A surname is a huge part of any Indians identity because 9 out of 10 times we can tell exactly where they are from in India, just by observing their name. However, as with anything else in India, surnames have some politics behind them as well. As soon as you tell an Indian the surname, they will immeaditely start judging you on your caste and city of origin. Let me tell you about the cities, because I'm not really proud of the Indian caste system. For example, my name - Prabhav Arora. The surname Arora is extremely common amongst the Punjabi society (North Indians) in India and guess what? I'm Punjabi. A name such as Rohit Chandani, would usually signify we are dealing with a Sindhi (Person who belongs to Rajasthan) due to the fact his surname has - "ani" at the end of it. There are many tricks to the trade and as you become a more "experienced" Indian you learn that your culture and your surname are a buy one get one free package. Moreover, my surname is vital to me because it gives a blatantly obvious hint on my religion. Prabhav Arora sounds like a Hindu name, Salman Khan sounds Muslim and John Abraham sounds Christian.
So that's the cultural context of my surname but what about its history?
After doing some shocking research I found out that my surname Arora actually has a lot of historical valour to back it up. The Arora's, were a well respected Indian tribe living in old day Amritsar (Punjab) and current day Lahore (Pakistan) dating back to almost the 1800's. From there, we fought many wars against the Pakistani's and eventually moved back to India after the Indo-Pak partition. Since then, we have prospered as a business community, known to be intelligent, eccentric and loving. (Right on the money)
Take Care!
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ReplyDeleteInteresting post Prabhav, You linked your name with both the Cultural and Religious context, As well as sharing the history of the name within historical events that took place in India!
ReplyDeleteWith the the research you have done about your own name, would you ever consider changing your name? I take it that you are proud to have your name. Because of this, do ever think you will ever live up to your name? In what way?
ReplyDeleteIt's a great name but it's not as rare as you think. The transition from fighting wars to making money is pretty cool though!
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