Rahul is a popular male name in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...

is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that family ties could be an obstacle in the path to renunciation and

nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colomb ...

. Buddha uttered Rahul when he first saw his son and gave a new meaning "relationship" and "bondage" to this name. Rahul means ''Moon, Able/efficient'' in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

. Rahul also means "Traveler" in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

People named Rahul

Personalities in the fields of Arts

* Rahul Banerjee (actor) (born 1983), Indian Bengali actor *

Rahul Bhatt Rahul Bhatt (born 24 January 1982) is an Indian fitness trainer and actor. The son of film director Mahesh Bhatt and Kiran Bhatt, Rahul gained notoriety in 2009 following revelations that David Headley, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, h ...

(born 1982), Indian fitness trainer and actor * Rahul Bose (born 1967), Indian Bengali actor, director, screenwriter, social activist * Rahul Deshpande (born 1979), Indian classical singer *

Rahul Dev Rahul Dev (born 27 September 1968) is an Indian actor and former model who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam language films and few Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi and Odia flims. Early life R ...

(born 1968), Indian actor and model *

Rahul Dev Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work ...

(1939–1994), Indian composer and music director *

Rahul Dholakia Rahul Dholakia is an Indian film director- producer-screenwriter, most known for his National Film Award-winning film, '' Parzania '' (Heaven & Hell On Earth) (2005),Rahul Khanna Rahul Khanna (born 20 June 1972) is an Indian actor, VJ and writer who works in Bollywood. He is the older son of actor turned politician Vinod Khanna and the older brother of Akshaye Khanna. Early life and background Khanna was born and rai ...

(born 1972), Indian Hindi actor *

Rahul Madhav Rahul Madhav (born 29 December 1984) is an Indian actor who mainly appears in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in Tamil and Kannada films. His notable films are '' Vaadamalli'', '' Thani Oruvan'', ''Memories'' and '' 100 Days of Love''. Act ...

, Indian Malayalam actor *

Rahul Nambiar Rahul Nambiar is an Indian playback singer and live performer. An MBA and M.Com-graduate, he won the Swapthaswarangal show in 2001 and began singing live. He sung more than 2000 songs in movies,He later ventured into playback singing, performin ...

, Indian singer *

Rahul Pandey Rahul Pandey (Devanagari: राहुल पाण्डेय) is an Indian Bollywood Playback singer and Songwriter. He debuted in the Indian Film industry with the song ''Haseena Tu kameena Mein'' from the movie Happy Ending in 2014. In 2015 ...

, Indian Bollywood musician * Rahul Raj (born 1980), Indian composer *

Rahul Ram Rahul Ram is an Indian bass guitarist, social activist and music composer. He plays bass guitar for musical band Indian Ocean, which he joined in 1991. He is also one of the three members of 'Aisi Taisi Democracy,' along with Varun Grover (write ...

, Indian musician *

Rahul Ramakrishna Rahul Ramakrishna (born 15 January 1991) is an Indian actor, writer and journalist. He made his debut with the short film, ''Sainma''. He became popular with his role in the 2017 Telugu film, ''Arjun Reddy''. Early life Rahul Ramakrishna was b ...

(born 1991), Indian actor, writer and journalist *

Rahul Rawail Rahul Rawail is an Indian film director and editor in Bollywood known for his films like ''Love Story'' (1981), ''Betaab'' (1983), '' Arjun'' (1985), ''Dacait'' (1987), '' Anjaam'' (1994), '' Arjun Pandit'' (1999) and the recent one '' Jo Bole S ...

(born 1951), Indian film director *

Rahul Roy Rahul Roy (born 9 February 1968) is an Indian actor, producer and former model known for his works in Hindi films and television. Roy began his acting career with the 1990 blockbuster '' Aashiqui'', a Mahesh Bhatt production as the lead actor ...

(born 1968), Indian Hindi actor, producer and model * Rahul Vaidya (born 1987), Indian singer *

Rrahul Sudhir Rrahul Sudhir is an Indian television actor. He is best known for portraying Vansh Raisinghania in ''Ishq Mein Marjawan 2''. Personal life Rrahul hails from Kashmir. He was born on 2 October 1993. He has done Engineering in Electronics and Comm ...

, Indian television actor

Personalities in Politics

Rahul Daulatrao Aher Rahul Daulatrao Aher is a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Chandwad (Vidhan Sabha constituency) of Maharashtra as a member of Bharatiya Janata Party. On 19 October 2014, he won the assembly election, defeating Indian National Congress ...

(born 1975), Indian politician from Maharashtra *

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president o ...

(born 1970), Indian politician *

Rahul Mahajan (politician) Rahul Pramod Mahajan (born 25 July 1975) is an Indian reality show entertainer and former pilot. He is the son of former union cabinet minister Pramod Mahajan. He appeared as a contestant on reality shows like '' Bigg Boss 2'' , '' Bigg Boss H ...

(born 1975), son of Late Pramod Mahajan, a prominent Indian politician

Personalities in the fields of Science

Rahul Mukerjee Rahul Mukerjee is an Indian academic and statistician. He is a National Science Chair of the Government of India, hosted by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, after his superannuation from the same institute in 2021 as a professor in t ...

(born 1956), Indian academic and statistician *

Rahul Pandit Rahul Pandit (born 22 April 1956) is an Indian condensed matter physicist, a professor of physics and a divisional chair at the Indian Institute of Science. Known for his research on phase transitions and ''spatiotemporal chaos and turbulence'' ...

(born 1956), Indian physicist *

Rahul Potluri Rahul Potluri (born 19 December 1983) is a British physician, researcher and founder of ACALM (Algorithm for Comorbidites, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality) Study Unit, United Kingdom (UK). His clinical epidemiology research unit is o ...

(born 1983), Indian-British physician and researcher * Rahul Sarpeshkar, American bio-engineer

Personalities in Sports

Rahul Banerjee (archer) Rahul Banerjee (born 15 December 1986) is an Indian Olympic and Arjuna Award, Arjuna Awardee archer. Career Banerjee started archery at the age of thirteen. His sister Dola Banerjee is also an Olympic archer. His first international appearance ...

(born 1986), Indian archer *

Rahul Bheke Rahul is a popular male name in India and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the Upanishads is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the Buddha, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that fa ...

(born 1990), Indian footballer * Rahul Chahar (born 1999), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Dravid Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former List of India national cricket captains, captain of the Indian national cricket team, Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his ...

(born 1973), Indian cricketer * K. L. Rahul (born 1991), Indian cricketer * Rahul Kanwat (born 1974), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Sanghvi Rahul Sanghvi (born 3 September 1974) is an Indian cricketer, specialising in left arm orthodox spin. He played for the Delhi state team. He played one Test match, which was the first Test between Australia and India in 2001 but was dropped ...

(born 1974), Indian cricketer * Rahul Yadav (cricketer) (born 1989), Indian cricketer *

Rahul Yadav Chittaboina Rahul Yadav Chittaboina (born 3 May 1998) is an Indian badminton player. He reached the semi-finals of 2017 Russian Open. Achievements BWF International Challenge/Series ''Men's singles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament : BWF ...

(born 1998), Indian badminton player

Other personalities

* Rahul Bajaj (born 1980), industrialist * Rahul Chandran (born 1976), policy analyst *

Rahul Easwar Rahul is a popular male name in India and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the Upanishads is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the Buddha, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that fa ...

, Indian author and activist *

Rahul Ligma Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was reveale ...

, fictional ex-employee of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

played by an amateur actor *

Rahul Mahajan (blogger) Rahul Mahajan is an American blogger, author, and educator. He has written two books and has had articles published in a wide range of newspapers including USA Today, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Dallas Morning News. He currently serves on t ...

, noted American blogger and author * Rahul Roushan (born 1980), Indian journalist and strategist * Rahul Roy (accountant) (1963–2009), Indian accountant *

Rahul Sankrityayan Rahul Sankrityayan (born Kedarnath Pandey; 9 April 1893 – 14 April 1963) was an Indian writer and a polyglot who wrote in Hindi. He played a pivotal role in giving travelogue a 'literary form'. He was one of the most widely travelled scholars ...

(1893–1963), Indian historian, religious scholar, philosopher, writer and polymath *

Rahul Sood Rahul Sood is the CEO and co-founder of Irreverent Labs, the former CEO of Unikrn), and was the founder of VoodooPC. Sood was also an early investor in AR/VR company Vrvana he's also an investor in blockchain play to earn horse racing game ZED Run ...

(born 1973), Canadian business executive *

Rahul Yadav Rahul Yadav (born 1989) is an Indian entrepreneur best known for being the co-founder and former CEO of Indian real estate search portal Housing.com. Citing his young age, he distributed all of his personal equity in Housing.com, worth aroun ...

(born 1988), Indian entrepreneur

Others

* Rahul Kumar (disambiguation), several people * Rahul Prasad (disambiguation), several people * Rahul Sharma (disambiguation), several people * Rahul Singh (disambiguation), several people

Awards named with Rahul

Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Award Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Award (Devnagari: महापंडित राहुल सांकृत्यायन पुरस्कार) is a literary honor in India which Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, (Central Hindi Organization), Ministr ...

is a Literary award in

Movies with the name Rahul

* Rahul's Arranged Marriage (2005) * Rahul (2001)