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ArchivesRe: Root of Sanskrit name Janaardhan
in reply to a message by sajana
The root jan, cognate with the root of English genesis, means to be born, come into existence, or be produced and is visible in the oldest language. jana literally means creature, and by synecdoche refers to races of people or subjects of a nation.
The root ard is also Indoeuropean, with Latin cognates, and has a cluster of meanings all related to forced movement. In the oldest literature, it means to move or scatter, but in later literature it develops the meaning of to dissolve, torment, agitate, shake. Right from the oldest times it also was used to connote the meanings to strike, hurt, kill, destroy. From this root, one got the word ardana meaning moving, but with a connotation of disturbance, distress, hurt etc. Extremely rarely ard and ardana have been used in meanings related to request in later literature, I haven't taken the time to understand this development.
The rules of Sanskrit allow the combinatination of the above two words to mean one who agitates the people. Most Indians today will, however, just treat the combination as an epithet of Lord Vishnu, the protector amongst the holy trinity, and of whom Lord Krishna is a manifestation. Most will obviously also recognize the part jana meaning people, but not spontaneously make the connection with creature, though will do so if pointed out. Very few will recognize the element ardana, but the concept of Vishnu being the agitator of creatures will not be a surprise to the many who have had a religious background.
Incidentally the d/dh alteration is a question of how to transliterate the dental (`soft', as opposed to `hard' retroflex) unaspirated (`hard' as opposed to `soft' aspirated) voiced consonant in to the Roman script. The nding -a is often dropped: a common phonological development in most of India. The ending -n is a grammatical marker of some sort on Sanskrit words in South Indian language: I am not familiar enough with these languages.
The root ard is also Indoeuropean, with Latin cognates, and has a cluster of meanings all related to forced movement. In the oldest literature, it means to move or scatter, but in later literature it develops the meaning of to dissolve, torment, agitate, shake. Right from the oldest times it also was used to connote the meanings to strike, hurt, kill, destroy. From this root, one got the word ardana meaning moving, but with a connotation of disturbance, distress, hurt etc. Extremely rarely ard and ardana have been used in meanings related to request in later literature, I haven't taken the time to understand this development.
The rules of Sanskrit allow the combinatination of the above two words to mean one who agitates the people. Most Indians today will, however, just treat the combination as an epithet of Lord Vishnu, the protector amongst the holy trinity, and of whom Lord Krishna is a manifestation. Most will obviously also recognize the part jana meaning people, but not spontaneously make the connection with creature, though will do so if pointed out. Very few will recognize the element ardana, but the concept of Vishnu being the agitator of creatures will not be a surprise to the many who have had a religious background.
Incidentally the d/dh alteration is a question of how to transliterate the dental (`soft', as opposed to `hard' retroflex) unaspirated (`hard' as opposed to `soft' aspirated) voiced consonant in to the Roman script. The nding -a is often dropped: a common phonological development in most of India. The ending -n is a grammatical marker of some sort on Sanskrit words in South Indian language: I am not familiar enough with these languages.
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