Kar (suffix)

Kar (Marathi: कर Kar, Konkani: कार Kār) is a suffix used after the names of villages along the western coast of India, forming the most common surnames used by the Marathi and Konkani people in Maharashtra, Goa and some parts of Karnataka.

Kar is the surname of mostly the Brahmins of Kashmir, Maharashtra, Bengal and Odisha. Kar Brahmins hail from Karhama village in Kashmir, India. In Bengal, the Kar surname is also used by people of the Kyastha or Kshatriya clan. During the rule of the Nawabs of Dhaka, the Kars of Bengal were the tax and revenue collectors and government office workers and were known to be the prime enemies of the Jaat caste.

Etymology

The suffix Kar comes from the Sanskrit Kār, which means "making, doing, lord of", later modified to mean "hailing from" or "belonging to" in Prakrit-based languages.[1]

Usage

Such surnames are commonly used by communities of Konkani and Marathi ethnicities all over India. Most of them identify themselves with a place their ancestors hailed from, or sometimes with new places to which they have migrated. For example, if a person hails from the village of Borim in Goa, his surname would be Borkār; this custom is also followed by Konkani migrants to Karnataka. If a person hails from the town of Sirsi, the surname used would be Sirsekār.[2] The surname Kar is also used in countries like Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey, Myanmar, Egypt, and others.[3]

References
  1. Monier Williams. "Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary". Monier Williams. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  2. Kumar Suresh Singh; B. G. Halbar; Anthropological Survey of India (2003). Karnataka Volume 26 of People of India, Kumar Suresh Singh Karnataka, Anthropological Survey of India. Anthropological Survey of India. pp. Pages:1612(See page:430). ISBN 9788185938981.
  3. https://forebears.io/surnames/kar
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