Revealing: The Story Behind The Name

About thousand years back, when the state of Rajputana was ruled by the mighty Rajputs, the brave and fearless clan, there was a kingdom named ‘Sultanpur’,the birth place of many such great warriors. The kingdom was ruled by Majaraja Gyan Singh, he had four children, 3 boys and a girl, named after lord Krishna: Shyam, Gopal, Kanahiya & Radha, the daughter.

In those days, there were no schools, this does not mean that there was no education at tht time, there were gurukuls, where most of the children of the kingdom were admitted for education under a ‘guru’. This kingdom had a guruji named ‘Bhimashankarachariya’.

A special thing about this particular kingdom was that a special honored name was given after the children completed the final stage of the education.

The children were taught Vedic Science and Mathematics, Arts and crafts that included painting, pottery, sculpture design etc.. and also Sanskrit, which opened the window to the ancient texts.

And later the boys were taught war management, horse riding, sword fighting and other techniques of attack in a war.

Among the four children, Kanahiya was brilliant in science and mathematics, Shyam had a hold in sword fighting & war management, and Radha was more into arts. But there was a problem with Gopal, although he was the good at most of the thing whatever was taught to him, but the tragic part was that he did not grasp anything from guruji, instead he used to practice everything on his own. Everyone praised Gopal, but he did not seem to be too happy, and guruji had sensed this inside Gopal.

One day, Gopal finally decides to stay back after lesson to talk it out to guruji.

Gopal (touching Guruji’s feet): “Pranam Guruji”.

Guruji: “Ayushman Bhavaha (May you have a long life)”.

Gopal: “Guruji, I am disturbed about one thing that is bothering me from a long time now”.

Guruji: “What is it my son?”

Gopal: “I am sorry to say this but I don’t get what you teach me, I practice everything on my own and this is how I learn”

Guruj: “That is interesting, but what is the problem in that”?

Gopal: “I fear that if this continues, I may not be able to pass on whatever I have learned to my offspring if this goes into my gene”

Guruji: “Well, I will only say that repetition is the medicine for your query, it is not bad to learn from self efforts, you will become a good example to other students who will learn by themselves”.

Gopal: “Thank You guriji. Now, allow me to leave!”

Gopal leaves the ashram and heads to the palace.

Days pass on, the learning process continues. And finally we arrive to the day which is similar to today’s convocation/graduation day. But here every student will be honored with a ‘name’ that will define their abilities and personality. All the honored named to the student were painted on cloth and were wrapped. The students were instructed to open only when they reach their parents.

Shyam, Gopal, Kanahiya and Radha were happy & excited about the names that they would be honored.

Kanahiya: “I hope that we would live up to Guruji’s expectations”.

Shyam: “I will definitely try my best, what say gopal”.

Gopal: “Lets see!”, (starts to walk slower)

Radha: “Bhaiya, Come along, you will be left behind”

Gopal: “I need drink some water from the river, I am feeling little dried up, I’ll catch you all later in the palace.”

But no-body knew that Gopal had a different plan at that moment.

Kanahiya: “But don’t get too late brother”

Gopal: “Don’t worry, I’ll reach on time”.

Kanahiya, Shyam & Radha leaves for the palace and Gopal reaches the river with the wrapped cloth, which will add a name to his life.

Reaching a tree, he sits down and starts to open the cloth and reads the name.

Gopal: “गुण - ना- आवत”, meaning that my coming generations will not be able to inherit the traits and characters from their forefathers, this is not what I want”.

Gopal hears a sound of temple bell, may be somebody just prayed before he reaches their parents and shows them their respective honored name.

Gopal then washes the cloth in the river, and cleans the cloth properly to remove any remains of the name”. and then puts it to dry.

It was now time to re-write the name, but the question was how? Should he go back to  guruji’s ashram and steal a brush and paint or find something other.

A few minutes later, again he hears a sound of a temple bell. And there is gets an idea! Most of the temple had an idol painted with sindoor (a natural coloring agent used in those days where they mixed color in powder from along with oil). And he runs to reach the temple.

He sees another such student going back, looks around for anyone for a prayer. Nobody was seen coming that side. This gave Gopal the much needed moment. He reached a branch of a tree nearby and broke a small part of it to use it to write on the cloth.

Gopal enters the temple,

Gopal: “God, forgive me, but I believe that fortune & future cannot be predicted & decided just by a name which our Guruji gives us, it is sheer by the work we do in life and so I am changing it for good of all”.

Gopal takes sindoor for the idol and writes as big as he can on the cloth: “गुण-आवत” – meaning the ability to grasp knowledge from elders & teachers & pass on to the generations to come.

Gopal then reaches the palace and shows to his father Majaraja Gyan Singh, and was very happy for his son. And later Gopal was named Rajkumar Gopal Gunawat, the beginner of the Gunawat family.

Wasn’t this a crazy story? We have so many family names here; I don’t know what will be the story behind another such family name: “BAMNAWAT”? :P

Do comment if you finally took time to reach this part of the article, suggestions are welcomed.

Enjoy Reading!!