Black and Bright and Beautiful

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

--- "C.R. Selvakumar" <selvakum at VALLUVAR.UWATERLOO.CA>
wrote:
>     Even
>     Brahmins don't name their children as veLLaiyan
> (White) though
>     among people belonging to other communities,
> veLLaiyan, veLLaicchaami,
>     etc. are not uncommon.

Just an aside but in some parts, the names veLLaiyan,
veLLaiccAmi seem to refer to balarAma. For example,
among kaLLar and other communities in Madurai area.
This is perhaps a reflex of vAliyOn.

Other names with seemingly color connotations are
kAri, veLLai, paccai used for vAsudeva, samkarSaNa,
pradyumna in paripATal (3:81).
>
>     I don't know of any studies done about names of
> individuals (like there are
>     studies about names of places) - but if one were
> to be conducted,
>     it is my hypothesis that not even 2% of names of
> tamil brahmins
>     would be tamil.

This might roughly be the case with saiva veLLALar
too. For example,  the preference for names such as
kanakacapai ( over ponnampalam), natarAcan (over
ATalaracu, ATavallAn), vaittiyaliGkam, citamparam
(over ciRRampalam), civaprakAcam, civaJAnam etc is to
be noted. In most cases, the spelling of these names
seem to be consistent with their Sanskrit derivation.

Thanks and Warm Regards,

LS

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