Name Submission

This was my first real attempt at filling out a name submission form by myself. Hopefully it will give other people attempting to register an Indian name some ideas of what issues they may wish to cover and how to explain certain name elements.

This name was registered via the July 2009 LoAR. During the commentary period there was some debate regarding whether sufficient contact existed between the South Indian Kingdoms and Europe to allow for registration with the CoA. Some of the commentary appears in the LoAR entry:

Irayari Vairavi. Name change from holding name Bhairavi of Thescorre.

Both elements were dated to South Indian (Tamil) contexts between the 11th and 13th centuries. This raised in commentary the question of whether there was sufficient contact between 11th-13th C Tamil-speakers and Europe, as required by RfS I.1. Precedent says:

This name is being returned for several problems. First, and most important, is whether there was substantial contact between Europeans and Tamil speaking people during the 9th C, the dates given for these names. We do not know of any, and neither the submitter nor the commenters provided support for such contact. While Indian names are registerable, it is still necessary to show that it is possible for the person who bears the name to have had contact with Europeans.

[Madhu Brahman] There are two problems with the name. First we would like to see some evidence of interaction between 3rd through 6th century India and Europe ... [January, 2000]

Barring documentation of substantial contact between Europeans and Tamil speakers prior to the European Age of Exploration, Tamil names dated to before the 15th C are not registerable. [Maya Kâl.i, August 2006 LoAR, R-Meridies]

The commenters were able to provide examples of contact between Europeans and Tamil speakers before the Age of Exploration, usually in the form of individual merchants or explorers. For example, Loyall notes:

European travellers to and from Asia in the late thirteenth and fourteenth century often passed through south India: Marco Polo visited the region c. 1291, as did Giovanni da Montecorvino (later bishop of Peking) and his companions. The Franciscan Odoric of Portenone and the Dominican Jordanus Catalani both wrote accounts of travels in south India.

While these individual examples do not constitute substantial contact between Tamil-speaking India and Western culture, they do show that Tamil-speaking India was a culture which "had contact with Europe during this period [i.e., pre-1600]" (RfS I.1) and that "it is possible for the person who bears the name to have had contact with Europeans", as specified in the August 2006 LoAR. The new information provided by the commenters allows us to register this name, and to allow the future registration of Tamil names from this period.