Dear Herman,

For once, this is a case of mythology that came to be recently enough for its creators to tell us about their motivations on Wikipedia:

Ahsoka was created by George Lucas and Dave Filoni.[2] The character was developed to illustrate how Anakin Skywalker develops from the brash, undisciplined Padawan apprentice in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) to the more reserved Jedi Knight in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).[3] Lucas, who had two daughters, also wanted the character to appeal to girls.[4] Early in development, Ahsoka's name was "Ashla".[5][a] Lucas renamed her after the ancient Indian emperor Ashoka; the spelling was then altered by screenwriter Henry Gilroy.[7]  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahsoka_Tano)

and Twitter: 

'In honor of #CloneWars 10th, the title page for the series bible I wrote back in 05. When we met with George to discuss the bible he changed Anakin's Padawan from 'Ashla' to 'Ashoka', after the Indian Emperor of the Maurya Dynasty. I later tweaked it to Ahsoka to make her unique.' (https://twitter.com/HGilroy67/status/1019372713712893952)

All my best,
     Antonia

On Wed, 11 Oct 2023 at 11:08, Charles DiSimone via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Herman Tieken,

I don't know if Ahsoka is related to Aśoka but there is a long history of Sanskrit and related influence in Star Wars. I recell reading that Yoda takes his name from yoddhṛ. The Duel of the Fates song from Episode 1 has its chorus sung in (mangled) Sanskrit. Additionally, Tibetan and Kalmyk were supposedly the inspiration, in part, of the language of the Ewoks.

With my best wishes,
Charles

Prof. Dr. Charles DiSimone
Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies
Department of Languages and Cultures
Ghent University


On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 9:44 AM Tieken, H.J.H. (Herman) via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear List members,

I saw announced a sequel to Star Wars which features a character called Ahsoka. I am curious to know if this is a mangled version of Aśoka, via Ashoka (in Dutch papers the aspiration in the name Gandhi is often misplaced: Ghandi).

with kind regards, Herman


Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127

The Aśoka Inscriptions: Analysing a corpus, New Delhi: Primus Books, 2023.



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