[Facts] Re: meaning of Shreyan
by তন্ময় ভট (guest)
4/6/2008, 10:02 PM
The name is unfamiliar, and the exact form is unknown to me in Sanskrit.
However, there is a set of words shrI, shrA, shrai, which seems to have originally meant something like to mix, boil, cook etc. I do not know the exact relation between this cluster of meanings, but one of them shrI soon picked up the additional meaning of `to diffuse light' and thence to light,lustre, glory, beauty and thence to prosperity, high rank etc. It was, for example, used as the name of the goddess of wealth, and is still used as the honorific (equivalent of Mr. or Sir in English), with a connotation of someone who is good and holy.
There is a word shreYas which, in form, is the comparative from shrI, and is usually parsed as beautiful, propicious, blissful, fortunate, happy, etc. A possible etymological reflex of this word in Greek, κρείων, means lord or master. This word could mean most blessed or favorable, and the feminine form, shreYA is used as a name.
Shreyan is not a form of this word that I recognize. However, it is completely possible that this is used in some modern Indian language, and is considered a form of the Sanskrit shreyas.