What's in a name: Looking back to the Bengali Surnames

We are born and brought up in a country where caste system controls many a thing like education, socio-economic growth, politics etc. So, by social design, we all get an idea of castes since childhood. 1931 census report says, there were at least four thousand different castes present. Each caste is then divided into many sub-castes.  In India, the easiest way to guess someone’s caste is by their surnames or family names. Alone in Bengal, at least four hundred different surnames from different castes and sub castes are there.

Keeping aside the harmful impacts of caste system, studying about surnames and their origins can really be fascinating. 

Quite contrary to the popular belief, Indian surnames are neither ancient nor always linked with the castes. As a kid, I had always wondered why our Indian Gods do not use any surname. None of the ancient emperors or influential people ever used any surname because surnames were introduced much later. As scholar Khagendra Nath Bhowmik mentions in his book, the first hint of caste based last names was in Manusanhita (200 B.C.) and then in Brihaddharma Puran (12^th Century). During Rikvedic period, people used to follow Varnasrama (social division of labour) but here Varna meant skills and people used to choose their professions as per their skills and not depending upon their family. So it was common that people used to work in different sectors thus had different castes within a family. In fact one could change ones caste by excelling in another work. Parashuram, Jabala putra Satyakam are some examples from Puran or other ancient literature to change their castes by their professional skill sets.

In later times, people started taking professions as per their family tradition. So son of a Brahmin became Brahmin, son of a Kshatriya became Kshatriya and so on. (No wonder, today also in India, parents choose their kid’s career!) But then also titles or surnames were used only during religious offerings. Much later, when Jain and Bauddha Dharma created an almost caste-free society, Bengal’s Sena king Ballal Sen (1160-1179 A.D.) reintroduced caste system. He divided people in thirty six (or forty one?) different castes and common people became more conscious about their family’s caste based identity to get benefits from the king. By that time, Brahmins used to have only two types of last names, Sharma and Swami. Other castes used to append a few words as last names (Devdatta, Munigupta) but these were only an extension of the first names.  In most of the cases, surname’s origin was from the profession a person or family followed. For example Pramanik (প্রামাণিক means Barber in Bengali) are the people who used to be barbers, Majhi(মাঝি means boatman) are the people who used to be boatmen, Joardar( জোয়ারদার) are the people who used to do business of Jowar or Milo(a type of winter staple in India) etc. Besides, in medieval India, Emperors used to give many titles to people or families for their good deeds and skills. Like Biswas (বিশ্বাস means trust in Bengali) title was given to the families who were reliable to the state, or who were the honest accountants. Gupta ( গুপ্ত ) was a title of the military-governor. Later these individual or group based titles became a part of family name and successor of the family started using the same last name to keep the tradition. A few government posts  (irrespective of castes or religions) later became surnames or titles. Choudhury (চৌধুরী) was a post for government officers who used to collect one forth portion (Chouth চৌথ ) of the income as tax. There are two other leads to this surname too; it came from the word Chaudhurin means a person owning four forces (Navy, Elephants, Horses and Army). Some says they were the officials to take care of the borders of the state. Patranabis (পত্রনবিস) was a Mughal post for writing official letters (patra) and documents. As these official titles or government positions were not given based on castes, people from various castes even from various religions used to have the same last names. Another origin of these surnames was from the places they had lived in. Like Boral (বড়াল), Chattopadhyay (চট্টোপাধ্যায়) were the people from Bora and Chatuti villages respectively. Some wanted to append a name based on their god or idols like Gon, Aditya(worshipers of the sun or came from the names of the famous kings like Bikramaditya), Gupta (from Chandragupta) etc. Some surnames got changed for the ease of pronunciation like Mondol became Morol, Goswami became Gosain( or Gohain in eastern regions), Aditya became Ash etc.

But did these surnames change only for pronunciation ease? Not really. In 1875 British Government legalized altering one’s name. After this, changing of surnames became a practice. People started changing their last names for many reasons.  Main was again the caste system. To get social acceptance, people from so called lower castes changed their surnames with similar sounding upper caste surnames. Like Malo, Maji became Mondol(Initially higher caste surname for people who were the head of Mondal or Village or an area). Sometimes, a higher caste surname is commonly assumed as a backward caste surname for how it sounds(sounds like a local word, for example Simlai, Piplai). Ironically people changed those surnames and adopted a comparatively lower caste surname. In British Colonized Calcutta, many elite families came in and started living here. Common villagers also came here for jobs. At that time they wanted to hide their family professions and wanted to introduce themselves as differently skilled especially which were required in a newly built city. For example, job opportunity for a clerk was more than that of a fisherman in urban lifestyle. So they started using a few common advanced caste surnames like Mondol, Sen, Roy, Choudhury etc.  As most of the Bengali surnames came from professions or government posts, both Hindus and Muslims shared same surnames. Later they wanted to separate themselves from people of other religions and of the same surnames. So common surname Laskar(লস্কর) got improvised by Hindus and they started using Naskar (নস্কর). However Muslims kept on using Laskar. This is the reason, in Calcutta or in urban crowd we do not find much variation of surnames but in interior part of Bengal, we can still see a variety of the last names.

Scholars Lokeshwar Basu and Khagendranath Bhowmik in their books have illustrated many surnames and their origins. For example:

Hajra-Army Officer who was the chief of thousand (Hajar-হাজার) soldiers.

Mudi- Literally means grocers- in Bengali Mudi(মুদি).

Hati-This has nothing to do with Elephants(in Bengali Hati, হাতি ). It came from the word Hottarik(হট্টারিক) that means owner of a business center. This used to be a government title as well.

Munshi-They were the intellectuals, sometimes clerks. This was also an official designation in Mughal Era.

Gayen- They used to be the singers (Gayok গায়ক). Singers from Mallabhum were named as Gayen.

Adhya- Comes from the Bengali word Dhanadhya ধনাঢ্য that means prosperous.

Dheki: This story is interesting. There was a man named Ashananda Mukhuti who was known for his build and physical strength. Incidentally he defeated a gangster using a Dheki(ঢেঁকি) - an agricultural tool used for threshing. After that, he got famous by the name Ashananda Dheki and Dheki became a surname in Bengal.

Basak- These businessmen used to attach a compass like tool, Basul on their trade-ships. Basak came from that word Basul. 

Dastidar- It came from a Persian word, Dasta(means Hand). They used to be the keepers of royal seals.

Interesting, no? There is something that we need to keep in mind; history of surnames has never been a single dimensional thing neither it was a simple flow of incidents. Many families could get the same surname by different sources. 

After independence, quite a few times this question came in discussion if we really need surnames when this can indicate our caste and hence social status. Some political parties and individuals or groups even invited people to stop using their surnames. However it seems that unlike some other states in India, people in Bengal are quite keen to use their surnames and so am I to know more on this.

Doubts:  While studying this topic, I got a few questions that I have not found the answers for.

Question 1: Post independence did the number of caste and sub caste increase in India as to create new policies for nation, government needed to know exact castes and their needs?

Question 2: Was it a natural flow or caste system encouraged people to start using surnames as a family tradition?
Question 3: Many Brahmin Surnames came from the place-names where they used to stay(Bandyopadhyay, Chattopadhyay etc). Did not non-Brahmins  from nearby area also claim the same surname?
Question 4: Nihar Ranjan Roy mentions in his book "Bangali Hindur Barneved", Bengali caste system is influenced by Alpian Arya society and not by Rikvedic Arya society. Where did this influence come from?

Any leads on these would truly be appreciated.

Sources: Here are a few books that helped me to get an idea on the topic: 

1.       পদবীর উৎপত্তি ও ক্রমবিকাশের ইতিহাস (Padabir Utpatti O Kromobikasher Itihas) by Khagendranath Bhowmik.

2.       আমাদের পদবীর ইতিহাস (Amader Padabir Itihas) by Lokeshwar Basu.

3.       Caste, Culture and Hegemony by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

4.       বাঙালী হিন্দুর বর্ণভেদ (Bangali Hindur Barnabhed) by Nihar Ranjan Roy

5.       বাঙ্গালীর ইতিহাস-আদিপর্ব (Bangalir Itihas-Adiparba) by Nihar Ranjan Roy

6.       বাঙালি জাতি পরিচয় (Bangali Jati Porichoy) by Shourindra Kumar Ghosh