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ArchivesRe: meaning of name
in reply to a message by gargi
Please give us all the information you can: what language your name comes from, if you're male or female, if it's a family name ... and, of course, what your name is! If it's Gargi, is it short for some other name?
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There is an Indian female name gArgI known from deep antiquity: it has been used for at least three thousand years now :-) I have no idea if that is what the original poster wants, but since I like an early, possibly mythological, character by this name, here goes:
gArgI means female descendant of garga. The name garga has not been used to my knowledge as anything but name, but may be related to the root gRR, to swallow. Both names are found in the Rgveda, and almost definitely date to the second millenium BC; and are thus Sanskrit (loosely used) in origin; the name is used all over India, probably more in the North than South.
Historically/Mythically, there is particular character gArgI vacaknavI, i.e., daughter of vacaknu ('eloquent'), who is very well known. She was a reputed philosopher whose penetrating questions about the then current ideas about the origin of existence itself is well known. Her sophist position against the celebrated philosopher yAjJavalkya (the -J- stands for a palatal n; means descendant of yajJavalka, which name though clearly made of yajJa, a ritual worship or sacrifice, and valka, a covering, scale, or bark, is obscure enough that classically valka has been considered to mean speaker in this context) at King janaka's (means 'progenitor') philosophical congress led to a very memorable argument where her eventual loss by fiat leaves one deeply dissatisfied with the arbitrary nature of any philosophically ordained-to-be-unquestionable ultimate cause.
The name is quite popular still in honor of this very early strong female scholar.
gArgI means female descendant of garga. The name garga has not been used to my knowledge as anything but name, but may be related to the root gRR, to swallow. Both names are found in the Rgveda, and almost definitely date to the second millenium BC; and are thus Sanskrit (loosely used) in origin; the name is used all over India, probably more in the North than South.
Historically/Mythically, there is particular character gArgI vacaknavI, i.e., daughter of vacaknu ('eloquent'), who is very well known. She was a reputed philosopher whose penetrating questions about the then current ideas about the origin of existence itself is well known. Her sophist position against the celebrated philosopher yAjJavalkya (the -J- stands for a palatal n; means descendant of yajJavalka, which name though clearly made of yajJa, a ritual worship or sacrifice, and valka, a covering, scale, or bark, is obscure enough that classically valka has been considered to mean speaker in this context) at King janaka's (means 'progenitor') philosophical congress led to a very memorable argument where her eventual loss by fiat leaves one deeply dissatisfied with the arbitrary nature of any philosophically ordained-to-be-unquestionable ultimate cause.
The name is quite popular still in honor of this very early strong female scholar.
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