| Username |
Post |
| Anon |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 07:33 PM
This year's Nobel prize winner for literature Sir V. S. Naipaul IMPLIES he COULD be of Nepali origin. Please read the 26th paragraph of his acceptance speech in Stockholm.
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-lecture-e.html
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| concerned |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 08:00 PM
This is the part anon was talking about.
We made no inquiries about India or about the families
people had left behind. When our ways of thinking had
changed, and we wished to know, it was too late. I
know nothing of the people on my father's side; I know
only that some of them came from Nepal. Two years ago
a kind Nepalese who liked my name sent me a copy of
some pages from an 1872 gazetteer-like British work
about India, Hindu Castes and Tribes as Represented in
Benares; the pages listed - among a multitude of names
-those groups of Nepalese in the holy city of Banaras
who carried the name Naipal. That is all that I have.
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| GP |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 09:26 PM
Are these NAIPAL, now Nepal ? Any connections?
Makune : our opposition leader is also "Nepal" .
"Nepal" surname : is it orignal surname, or borrowed surname?
Please, let us know details: well some website URL would be fine.
Because I know, one of my teacher at UOR (now, IIT, roorkee)
linked many nepali surnames with surnames in Garhwal
and Deharadun. One of them is "Pokhariyal" = Pokharel
Bhardwaj gotra. Quite a good resemblence. The changes
might be due to change in language with time, it can be
realized with the Nepali used by Bhanu Bhatka and the Nepali
Bhasa now we use at Present.
Well, when I visited hilly sight seeing places, I could
find many Nepali speaking peoples whose parents were Nepalis
and surname quite similar now working there mostly as
lower class workers. Because the restaurant owners were
surprised to find their customers from Nepal. I guess there can be
many peoples who migrated "both ways" when the old Nepal was
almost double the present size.
GP
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| Anon |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 10:05 PM
Well, geo-politically, Nepal was almost double its present size for a very brief period only. From 1802 to 1814. But socio-ethnically, even before there existed the modern state of Nepal (1769), or even the modern state of India (1947), there has been a fluid, borderless people to people interaction along all of the Himalaya. The Indian states of Himachal Pradesh (incl. Garhwal) and Uttaranchal (incl. Kumaon), present day Nepal, and then the extensions further east engulfing Northern Bengal, Sikkim and Assam have populations that share many religious and linguistic similarities. Naturally, I'd say. I actually traveled extensively in the Indian Himalaya (Kumaon and Garhwal) this summer, and came across not only similarities in surnames, physique, and languages, but there were some who even claimed that brutal Gurkha repression between 1802 and 1814 are recalled in Garhwali folk songs to this day. I couldn't verify this though, but we seemed to have taxed them so high that the local kingdoms appealed to the Brits to come and rescue them, hence triggering the Anglo-Nepal war in 1815 after which we lost all of that Western territory. The Brits then moved in and made the region their summer abode with Shimla as the undeclared capital from where they ruled Aden in the Wast, Mandalay in the East, and eveything in between except Rana-controlled Nepal.
Anyway, yes, it is quite likely that Naipaul's family farmed in regions that could belong to the Nepal south these days.
There is an interesting story that Dr. Sukhdev Sah of the IMF told Anon sometime ago. When he travelled to the Carribean, he came across communities in Trinidad that spoke a language that resembled his Terai dialect. He said the resemblance was so unmistakable that he proposed it'd be a good idea to open an FM station in Janakpur and relay/sell programs to the Indian communities a whole world away. Talk about marketing nostalgia!
It would indeed be worth exploring academically if the flow of indentured labor from India to the Indies after the 1880s (including Naipaul's family) included people from the Nepal Terai as well. Wasn't there a Dutch doctor (of the Dutch Guyanise) who also claimed to have had ancestors from Nepal?
Funny how small the world is after all.
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| sparsha |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 11:05 PM
Hi GP,
As I know from the "Bambsabali of Nepal" A king from the west (long before Nepal was united) granted a birta in Dailekh at a region called "Nepa". So, people living in Nepa Birta were called "Nepal" (Nepa ma Aayalaya bhayeka le Nepalaya or Nepal for easyness, i.e. people living in Nepa area are Nepal). Four Birtas were given to four Pandit brothers, one brother was given "Khan" birta so his people are called "khanal", and the other brother got "sutar kot" birta so his people are called "suta karki" karki was a post then, not a chhetri cast surname, other brother got "barala" birta and his people are known as "Baral". So, all these people (Khanal, Baral, Sutar Karki, and Nepal) have same gotra "Ghrita Kausik". This birta was given some 18 or 19th generation ago.
Of course, none of the surnames are/were patented, so anyone can use any surname they want. I read some where that a low cast person used "pandit" as his surname and other low cast person kept "sharma" to avoid "tallo jat ko treatment". To me, there is nothing wrong. As I wrote none of the surnames are/were patented.
As far as Makune goes, he is listed in Nepal Bambabali, as I am told. So, his ancestors are probably from that Nepal birta. The Nepal Bambsabali also mentions that Vidhydhar Surajprasad Naipaul may be a guy related to Nepal birta.
May be he is a Nepal, who knows? he (V.S. Naipaul) himself does not know.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 16-Dec-01 11:57 PM
Hi GP-ji,
A few years ago, Prakash A. Raj, a Nepali writer published a slim book
called "The Brahmins of Nepal".
Fortunately, I have that book right in front of me here; so, on page 38 of that book, Raj writes:
"The surname Nepal is suuposed to be derived from the village of Nepal in Dailekh district. Among the well-known Nepals have been such politicians as Ramhari Sharma (from Godavari in Kathmandu) Madhav Kumar Nepal (from Rautahat in eastern Terai) and Pradeep Nepal (from Bhojpur in eastern hills) and Sanskrit scholar such as Gyanmani."
Hope this helps.
If you need to contact Prakash-ji for details, I'd be happy to give you his contact address via private email.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| thito |
Posted
on 17-Dec-01 12:27 AM
rajan has nicely described the origin of surname nepal.
http://www.rajan.com/rajan/family_history.htm
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| sparsha |
Posted
on 17-Dec-01 11:14 AM
Yes, what Rajan has said in his page on Nepal family history seems correct to me.
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| anepalikt |
Posted
on 17-Dec-01 11:43 AM
I thought "Nepal" came from "Nepa" and the rishi by the same name?
Regardless, I think it is great that Naipaul comes from Nepal!!
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| not_nepal |
Posted
on 17-Dec-01 11:46 AM
to find out more about the surname "Nepal," go to Rajan Nepal's homepage at www.rajan.com
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| not_nepal |
Posted
on 17-Dec-01 11:47 AM
sorry, someone has already posted that link here. my bad
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