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Help[Facts] Re: Meaning of the name Sajith
in reply to a message by Sajith Kaimal
Sajith I wonder if you are an Indian. The interpretation you give of your name makes the name swajith rather than sajith, anyways, little distortion is seen in names like in my name where ajeya becomes ajay, i.e. invincible
I wondered why the Frisbee was getting bigger, and then it hit me.
I wondered why the Frisbee was getting bigger, and then it hit me.
This message was edited 5/5/2009, 1:44 AM
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Why do you think ajay came from ajeya?
ajaYa (I am using the last -a to indicate the Sanskrit spelling) is actually a pretty old word meaning invincible, and is a standard epithet of viSNu, and there was also a grammarian by that name. The feminine ajaYA is a standard epithet of mAYA.
Grammatically, in Sanskrit, many compound words can be parsed both as what it is technically called tatpuruSa compounds or as vahuvrIhi ones. tatpuruSa compounds roughly imply that the compound refers to a qualified form of the second element: naJa-tatpuruSa (The J is the symbol for palatal n) a-jaYa means victory qualified by the negative, i.e. non-victory or defeat. The vahuvrIhi compounds refer to something else which is qualified by the phrase contracted, and the vahuvrIhi ajaYa refers to one over who is not (or cannot be) victory: i.e. undefeated or invincible (both meanings are attested). Good dictionaries (e.g. Monier-Wlliams) will show all three meanings.
(And, incidentally, there are two other compound modes in Sanskrit: dvandva, where both elements are equally present as in hariharau meaning hari and hara; and avyaYIbhAva, where the first element is qualified by the second, and so the form does not like to take declenational suffixed, e.g. pAragangam, the bank of ganges, used as an adverb of place.)
ajaYa (I am using the last -a to indicate the Sanskrit spelling) is actually a pretty old word meaning invincible, and is a standard epithet of viSNu, and there was also a grammarian by that name. The feminine ajaYA is a standard epithet of mAYA.
Grammatically, in Sanskrit, many compound words can be parsed both as what it is technically called tatpuruSa compounds or as vahuvrIhi ones. tatpuruSa compounds roughly imply that the compound refers to a qualified form of the second element: naJa-tatpuruSa (The J is the symbol for palatal n) a-jaYa means victory qualified by the negative, i.e. non-victory or defeat. The vahuvrIhi compounds refer to something else which is qualified by the phrase contracted, and the vahuvrIhi ajaYa refers to one over who is not (or cannot be) victory: i.e. undefeated or invincible (both meanings are attested). Good dictionaries (e.g. Monier-Wlliams) will show all three meanings.
(And, incidentally, there are two other compound modes in Sanskrit: dvandva, where both elements are equally present as in hariharau meaning hari and hara; and avyaYIbhAva, where the first element is qualified by the second, and so the form does not like to take declenational suffixed, e.g. pAragangam, the bank of ganges, used as an adverb of place.)
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Thanks for your excellent explanation and I highly appreciate your Sanskrit knowledge, myself being a Sanskrit student too. Maybe, the name we are discussing about is derived from Sajjit ,i.e., groomed one.
This message was edited 5/6/2009, 2:50 AM
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Yes, that could certainly be.
A word of caution, however. A long time back, I used to try to do the same: try to derive obviously Hindu names always from a Sanskrit word. Thus, in Bengal, we have names like Rita, Riya, etc., which can be conceived of as distorted pronunciations of Sanskrit words (e.g. riktA, hrIYA, etc.) The only problem with that explanation is that the pattern of usage did not match: riYA seems to not be common in the subculture that would like name their daughter as `modesty', and the oldest rare riYA's I could find neither spell the name any closer to hrIYA in Bengali, nor do they know the origin of the name, as would be expected if some one picked up hrIYA in modern times. On the contrary, they seemed to belong to the subculture that could be exposed to names of middle eastern origin, and liked uncommon sounding (rather than meaning) names. Similarly, Rita seemed much more common in the Angloindian Bengali community. So, nowadays, along with looking for a Sanskrit explanation, I also look at the distribution of the names, what period and subculture it belongs to, and depending on that think of borrowing as an explanation.
Since Sajith (with the -th) is very likely South Indian or South-east Asian (or other expatriate communities), and since the name is quite common in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it would help to know if the word sajjit is pronounced sajit in those communities (in the Hindi-Marathi-Bengali-Assamese-Oriya region, this would be rare: old transformations through Prakrit tend to maintain syllable weight so sajjit tends to become sAjit, which is not what I think I have heard the name pronouned as, I think it rhymes with ajit. In modern times, the -jj- is a completely common phonemic structure and not likely to undergo lenition to the different -j- in most of these languages. The other Indian languages have different, and unknown to me, phonotactis.) The antiquity of the name in these regions would also help.
On a different note, I appreciated your past contribution to this board. There are very few out here who know about names of Sanskrit origin, and a lot of misinformation propagates, so it was nice to see good information for a change.
A word of caution, however. A long time back, I used to try to do the same: try to derive obviously Hindu names always from a Sanskrit word. Thus, in Bengal, we have names like Rita, Riya, etc., which can be conceived of as distorted pronunciations of Sanskrit words (e.g. riktA, hrIYA, etc.) The only problem with that explanation is that the pattern of usage did not match: riYA seems to not be common in the subculture that would like name their daughter as `modesty', and the oldest rare riYA's I could find neither spell the name any closer to hrIYA in Bengali, nor do they know the origin of the name, as would be expected if some one picked up hrIYA in modern times. On the contrary, they seemed to belong to the subculture that could be exposed to names of middle eastern origin, and liked uncommon sounding (rather than meaning) names. Similarly, Rita seemed much more common in the Angloindian Bengali community. So, nowadays, along with looking for a Sanskrit explanation, I also look at the distribution of the names, what period and subculture it belongs to, and depending on that think of borrowing as an explanation.
Since Sajith (with the -th) is very likely South Indian or South-east Asian (or other expatriate communities), and since the name is quite common in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it would help to know if the word sajjit is pronounced sajit in those communities (in the Hindi-Marathi-Bengali-Assamese-Oriya region, this would be rare: old transformations through Prakrit tend to maintain syllable weight so sajjit tends to become sAjit, which is not what I think I have heard the name pronouned as, I think it rhymes with ajit. In modern times, the -jj- is a completely common phonemic structure and not likely to undergo lenition to the different -j- in most of these languages. The other Indian languages have different, and unknown to me, phonotactis.) The antiquity of the name in these regions would also help.
On a different note, I appreciated your past contribution to this board. There are very few out here who know about names of Sanskrit origin, and a lot of misinformation propagates, so it was nice to see good information for a change.
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Thanks for your approval. I looked out for my name in Apte Vaman Shivram's Sanskrit dictionary and I found it. I might sound flattering but it is really a pleasant surprise to see a Sanskrit guy here. Why don't you register and become a regular member here ??
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