Cool Bihari: Patna Ya Patliputra:The New Debate

The new found zeal for changing the look and feel of Bihar has finally lead to another call, demand for change of name of Patna as Patliputra.After nearly two decades, a demand to rename Bihar capital Patna as Patliputra has resurfaced.

The attempt to mobilise people's support for the renaming has once again come from Gen (Retd) S.K. Sinha, the governor of Jammu and Kashmir who hails from Bihar and had initiated a campaign for the renaming in the 1980s."People have to put pressure on the government to rename Patna to Pataliputra," said Sinha who was visiting the city to attend a function and address a seminar. He also hinted at seeking help from Biharis outside the state.He said if Bombay could become Mumbai, Madras Chennai and Calcutta Kolkata, why can't Patna become Pataliputra."All the three big cities changed their name but nothing was done to rename Patna as Pataliputra," he said."Pataliputra was the capital of India for nearly 1,000 years. It came into existence in 487 BC, it has given many things to the world," said Sinha.

He said on the other hand the name Patna had a history of hardly 500 years and the city acquired the status of state capital only in 1911 during British rule.About his efforts for renaming in the 1980s, he said: "Over a hundred thousand people had endorsed the move by putting their signature and the state government also approved the proposal.

But the central government failed to respond to it."Patna has been known by different names through the centuries. The city of Pataliputra, which was the capital of the Magadh empire, had two older names, Pushpapur and Kusumpur, both meaning the city of flowers. Patali also means a flower. During the medieval period, it was renamed Azeemabad.

Nothing wrong with the move but the fact remains that"Naam mein Kya rakha hai".

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Posted by Ajit Chouhan on Monday, April 10, 2006 at 3:26 PM | Permalink

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Dear Ajit Bhai

I am much impressed with your last sentence "NAAM me kya , Rakha hai ?" . You are a true COOL BIHARI .

Receive my thanks from
HOT BIHARI
"Mukhiya"

Posted by Ranjan | 2:38 PM

Ajit bhai

I strongly feel that NAME is very important.

Years back when I was in Patna, I had read a book by Late Ram Swarup (Word as revelation - Names of Gods) which had some beautiful insights on names of gods. Ram Swarup wrote it not only from a linguist perspective but also as a mystic, seeker. I would have to re-order that book from Amazon but do remember that it really impressed me and the bottomline for me was ki Names are as important as the real thing. Unfortunately don't remember the thought process behind the conclusion. Don't know if you recite any Mantras , sing any bhajans but am sure listen to songs. Names belong to that category. Lyrics are as important as the musical instrument. Sound, Visuals, Names et all are going to be even more important than the concrete structures in future world where abundabce/prosperity is the norm). However not sure if Patna really has reached that stage. For now need to remain focussed on clean roads, putting the criminals in lockup, uninterrupted electricity , cleaning of Ganga, IT parks, Gardens in the city etc.

Coming to renaming of cities

City names not only reflect lot of past history, traditions, origin but also values, future aspirations and what not. However whether Patlipura is the right name and NOW is the right time for a name change exercise, I am still unsure of. Maybe we should have some gardens & lots of treeds, plants & flowers first before thinking of renaming to Patliputra.

Some other related articles
http://rainbowwarrior.coa.edu/laura/importance.htm
http://www.smallbiz.com/articles/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=130

Posted by KA | 6:53 PM