Singh

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Singh is an ancient Indian Vedic title meaning "Lion", dating back over 2000 years old to ancient India. It is a Hindu title alotted to the martial race of India, the Rajputs but had started to become used by the Sikhs after 1699 when their tenth Guru Gobind Singh started to use it instead of his surname Rai and had formed the Khalsa. In the recent times since the decrease of Rajput power it has also begun to be used by some other groups such as Dogras, Gurkhas, Gujjars, Jats, Marathas, Bhumihars, Yadavs and Kurmis.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 'Singh' in Sikhism 3 Naming patterns 4 Distinction 5 Singh in fiction 6 References

[edit] Etymology

Singh is derived from the Sanskrit Simha meaning "Lion". It has been used by many groups throughout history, too many to accurately list. It is used throughout Northern India with various transliterations. For example, in Hindi (Devnagari script), the name is written as िंसह (Sinh) and pronounced as िंसघ (Singh). In Punjabi (Gurmukhi script), the name is written as ਸਿੰਘ (Singh) and pronounced as Singh. In Gujarati, it is spelled as Sinh. Marathas use Sing.

Although it is a common misconception to call both the lion and the Tiger by the common name "Sher" (of Turko-Persian origin) in Northern India and Pakistan, most terms for the tiger in various Indo-Aryan languages include Baagh (Hindi), Baaghaa (Bengali), Baghiyaad (Punjabi) and Vaagh (Gujarati and Marathi). All these are derived from the Sanskrit word for tiger, Vyaagraha.

[edit] 'Singh' in Sikhism

"Singh" was ancient Indian name for Lion, dating back over 2000 years old. After the birth of the Khalsa brotherhood in 1699, the Sikhs adopted the name "Singh" due to the wishes of Guru Gobind Singh. "Kaur" was the equivalent name for women.^[1]

Guru Gobind Singh, gave the name "Singh" to all the Sikh men so that all in the community would psychologically have the warrior spirit induced in them. As a display of equality, the name Kaur, borrowed from the Rajput title Kanwar given to their women(meaning: "princess"), was given to all the Sikh women. The Guru said, "You are my beloved princesses, my daughters. You must be respected. How can this world be without you?"^{[citation needed]} These two names were given to the Sikhs on April 13 and 14, 1699.

[edit] Naming patterns

• Sometimes, Singh is used as a middle name after the given name and followed by the caste/clan/family name. For example, "Balraj Singh Khuman", "Simar Singh Sharma", "Kartar Singh Virk","Gurvinder Singh Dhillon", "Natwar Singh Gujjar", "Daljit Singh Khanna" etc (Pattern: 1. First name, 2. Singh, 3. family/clan name).
• One usage is the given name and Singh as the surname. For example, "Tripatpal Singh", "Sasha Singh", "Monica Singh", "Kishan Singh", "Raghubir Singh", "Mohan Singh" etc.
• Singh is sometimes dropped and only the given name followed by the family name is used. For example, "Navtej Sarna", "Rajvir Chauhan" etc.
• Just like Sikh males have 'Singh' in their middle name, Sikh women use 'Kaur' in their middle name.

[edit] Distinction

An important distinction to be noted here is that "while all Sikhs are Singhs, not all Singhs are Sikhs."^[2]

[edit] Singh in fiction

• The arch enemies of The Phantom are The Singh Brotherhood.

[edit] References

1. ^ Dr. McCleod, Head of Sikh Studies, Department of South Asian Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
2. ^ Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Volume I.