Pāṇi is a surname used in

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, found often in the state of

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

(formerly Orissa). The surname Pāṇi is widely used in Orissa,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, and a large part of eastern and central India. This surname is used by Brahmins whose root is claimed to be traced to

Ujjain Ujjain (, , old name Avantika, ) or Ujjayinī is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative as well as religious centre of Ujjain ...

of Madhya Pradesh and to the period of

Kalidasa Kālidāsa (, "Servant of Kali"; 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviv ...

History

There are two stories how this surname (or caste name) came about. The first one says the great grammar pundit

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...

is the ancestor of Pāṇis, and the other story is that a king of Kalinga conferred the title Pāṇi to

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

s who could easily memorize all of the

Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

. Pani reached their zenith and were revered as ministers in the period of king

Vikramaditya Vikramaditya (Sanskrit: विक्रमादित्य IAST: ') was a legendary king as mentioned in ancient Indian literature, featuring in traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi, Vetala Panchavimshati'' and ''Singhasan ...

(1st century AD). Pani migrated to Orissa in the 12th century AD after king Jajati Keshari invited them for a

yajna In Hinduism, ''Yajna'' or ''Yagna'' (, Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐd͡ʒɲə ) also known as Hawan, is a ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedas, Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature ...

that was held to honour

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

. Pani families in

Purulia district Purulia district () is one of the twenty-three districts of West Bengal state in Eastern India. Purulia is the administrative headquarters of the district. Some of the other important towns of Purulia district are Raghunathpur- Adra, Manbazar ...

have been

Zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

s (in

Chakradharpur Chakradharpur is a municipal town situated in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, India, positioned strategically on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Located 62 kilometers west of Jamshedpur, 115 kilometers south of Ranchi, and 101 kilometers ea ...

Puri Puri, also known as Jagannath Puri, () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state ca ...

Barabazar Barabazar is a census town in the Barabazar CD block in the Manbazar subdivision of the Purulia district in the state of West Bengal, India. Before Indian independence in 1947, it was the capital of an expensive zamindari of Barabhum in Br ...

. Some Pāṇis migrated inland to the tribal areas of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

and settled during the

Mughal period The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

(17th century). (The migrants' descendants still identify themselves as residents of Orissa.) There are a few Pāṇis from this migratory group in Jhargram in west bengal and in western Odisha.

Notable people

Notable people with the surname include: *

Baishnaba Pani Baishnaba Pani (1882–1956) was an Indian writer and arranger of jatras, a type of folk-theatre in the state of Odisha. Earlupy life He was born at Kothapada, Mahanga, Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka in Odia language, Odia ), is ...

(1882–1956), Indian writer and theatre director *

Biswamohan Pani Biswamohan Pani is a former design engineer at Intel. In November 2008 he was charged with stealing $1 billion worth of trade secrets from Intel while he worked for its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).Anastasia Tubanos''Intel Employee Cha ...

, former design engineer at Intel *

Bhavna Pani Bhavna Pani (born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actress, model and dancer. She is trained in classical dance forms Odissi and Kathak, as well as in ballet and contemporary modern dance. She debuted in films in 2001 with '' Tere Liye''. Career Bh ...

, Indian actress, model, and dancer *

Ravi Narayan Pani Ravi Narayan Pani is an Indian politician. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from Deogarh, Odisha as a member of the Janata Dal. Also elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly The Odisha Legislat ...

, Indian politician *

Uday Shankar Pani Uday Shankar Pani is an Indian film maker. He graduated in 1974 from the Film and Television Institute of India. He was an assistant director in Richard Attenborough's ''Gandhi''. A 1974 documentary on the National Film Archive of India made by ...

, Indian filmmaker

References

{{portalbar, India, Language Surnames Surnames of Indian origin