Expert: Aupmanyav - 12/4/2007

Question
is it true that wives in India take their husbands' first name as their last name? and also the children. can you explain more about this? ThANK YOU.

Answer
Dear Friends,

That is right. A woman after marriage leaves her father's family and joins the husbands family. She now becomes 'the wife of this person, who is a descendant of this sage'. The descent is known as 'Gotra' (geneology). They would accept the family name of the husband and when they die, the rituals would mention her as I have written above.

In some regions in India, generally South India (Gujarat, Maharashtra, and the four Southern states, Andhra, Karanataka, Tamilnadu, and Kerala), they would adopt the husband's name as the middle or last name. In Gujarat and Maharashtra, it would be a Kamlaben Govindji Thakore, Govindji being her husband; and in further South, it would be Kamla Subrahmanian, Subrahmanian being the name of her husband. The children also would be Mohandas Govindji Gandhi or Rajani Subramanian.

In North India, the surnames could be placenames, as in Surjit Singh Barnala, Barnala being his ancestral village. In South, the name of a person could start with his village name as in 'Palayamkottai Sankaralingam Ranganathan', where Palayamkottai is the name of the village, Sankaralingam is the name of the father, and Ranganathan is the given name of the gentleman. Are not the naming systems so very interesting? The emphasis was on identifying the person as exactly as possible.

And when a religious ceremony is conducted, who is conducting it, for whom it is being conducted, where it is being conducted, and on what exact date, time, position of the sun and moon, the position of the asterisms, and the position of the zodiac, it is being conducted; for what God it is being conducted, and the purpose of the ceremony, all were very clearly mentioned. Hindus, surely, liked to be very exact. For example, it would be Jambudwipe (Continent), Bharatkhande (Region), Nepaldeshe (country), Kathmandu Nagare (city), etc. etc.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

Aupmanyav