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India has ancient Jewish and Christian communities, and, in addition, has a lot of recent conversions. It also has an Anglo-Indian community arising from the colonial period. The names in these communities are often European and Biblical, and I suspect this to be the case fpr Annie and Achsah.

Madhu, of course, is an old Indian name, an Indo-european in origin (an English cognate is mead). It means honey or sweet, and was the generic symbol for all that was good, pleasant, and proper. I haven't heard it as a male name too often, probably because it was the name of a pretty unpleasant character in mythology. As a name, it often is part of a bigger word like madhusUdan, `the slayer of madhu', an epithet of kRSNa whom I describe explaining Brijesh last month. The sUdana bit comes from a word meaning to put in order or arrange according to taste, often an euphemism for removing or killing.

• Lotsa Info Needed - Chante N. Burrell  May 2 2005, 5:09:46 AM
  • Re: Lotsa Info Needed - Anneza  May 2 2005, 11:49:18 PM
  • Re: Lotsa Info Needed - তন্ময় ভট  May 2 2005, 11:13:50 AM
  • Josué - Lumia  May 2 2005, 7:17:37 AM