1. The two cases , that of Prof. Deshpande being asked to add S'arma to his name Madhava during his upanayana samskaara and the name of Venkatavarma being a totally different name than the name Kuppuswami Sastri seem to be two different conventions.

2. 'Varma' being in the community-indicating  name-ending of the son of a Brahmin father is possible in a matrilineal Keralite family system that prevailed till recently in Kerala, if the mother in that case is from a Varma ('Kshatriya') lineage.

3. But the case of Sri Kuppuswami Sastri doesn't seem to be even that. Is 'varma' a name ending separated from the part Venkata in this case ? The concept of 'samskaara name' in this case seems to be intriguingly strange.   

On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 3:39 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@umich.edu> wrote:
Dear Palaniappan,

This is interesting.  At my Upanayana ceremony in Pune, when I was 8 year old, I was told to say the following greeting to the teacher/priest:  ... mādhavaśarmā aham abhivādaye.  The addition of Śarman to my first name was supposed to indicate my Brahmin family background.  That added part "--śarman" was not used elsewhere.  I have not heard of -varmā as a part of the Saṃskāra-name among Brahmins, but there must be regional variations.

Madhav Deshpande

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 5:53 PM, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <Palaniappa@aol.com>
To: Indology List <Indology@list.indology.info>
Cc: 
Date: Sun, 8 May 2016 16:52:08 -0500
Subject: MM. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri's saṁskāra name
In his obituary of MM. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri, V. Raghavan says, “Kuppuswami by the popular name and Venkatavarma by his Saṁskāra-name, he was the fourth son of Seturama Ayyar…” (New Indian Antiquary, April, 1944, p.17. The link was given by Manu Francis in another post). How common is ‘varma' as a part of the Saṁskāra-name of Brahmins?

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Palaniappan




--
Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA

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Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
 
Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
 
FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
 
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