# All IIR Languages: names of planets



## Illuminatus

Hi
I am starting a thread on Astronomy Terminology on popular demand 

Here are the planets:

Mercury - _budh_
Venus - _shukr_
Earth - _prithvi_
Mars - _mangal_
Jupiter - _guru_ / _brihaspati_
Saturn - _shani_
Uranus -
Neptune -
Pluto - 

Not sure whether these three planets have any well-used Hindi names.


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## panjabigator

Thanks Illum.  I was just getting around to this.

Curious, are the planets' names the same in Marathi?  I believe they are in Indian Panjabi.


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## lcfatima

Interesting, thanks.


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## bakshink

Uranus is called "Arun" (Arun is the Indian God of Dawn)
Some Indians call "Uranus" as "Indra" (the Indian God of "Heavens"/king of angels/god of thunder).

9. Neptune is called "Varun" (Varun is the Indian God of Water/Seas).

10. Pluto is called "Yama" (Indian God of Death / Hell).

11. Rahu (In Hindu mythology, Rahu is a snake that swallows the sun or the moon causing eclipses).

12. Ketu (In Vedic astrology, Ketu is the Moon's South (descending) node. Legends have a different view from astrology. There was a demon who got his head chopped off by God Vishnu. He was trying to drink nectar. VISHNU CHOPPED OFF HIS NECK SO THAT THE NECTAR COULD NOT GO FULLY INTO HIS BODY. The head is called "Rahu" and the remaining body is called "Ketu".

Sorce: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Hindi-Urdu-2855/2009/2/planets-true-Indian-names.htm


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## panjabigator

It's very interesting that the Indian Godly associations and attributes with the planets (based off of Bakshink's post) coincide nicely with Greco-Roman pantheon as well.

Uranus/Chronus is the god of time (so not really here)
Neptune/Poseidon is the god of the seas.
Pluto/Hades is the lord of the underworld.

So at least with the last two.


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## Faylasoof

Yes, really nice to know at last!

BTW, for theAncient Greeks, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν; Roman: Neptūnus) was the god of the sea but as "The Earth-Shaker," also of earthquakes and Uranus (Οὐρανός) was the father of Kronos (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).

The relationship between these names in Graeco-Roman mythology is:

Mars (_Ares_ in Greek) was the son of Jupiter, Jupiter (_Zeus_) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (_Kronos_) the son of Uranus (_Poseidon_).

I wish we had made a thread for this topic in all the Indo-Iranian languages. Then we would learn even more. Anyway, apart from the above names here which some Urduphone astrologers (count me out) use, here is what we use in astronomy:

عطارد̤ u_T_ārid = تير tīr= Mercury
زهره zuhra = ناهيد nāhīd = Venus – both popular female names
ارض arẓ = کُرہ ارض kura(h)-e-arz =  كُرہ زمین kura(h)-e-zamiin = earth
مريخ mirrīx = بـﮩرام bahrām = Mars – the latter still used as a boy’s name in Iran and amongst the Zoroastrians everywhere. 
مشتري mushtarī= برجيس birjīs= Jupiter  - Used as a boy’s name in India too. Remember برجيس قدر Birjīs Qadr?
زحل zuḥal = کيوان  kaiwān = Saturn – boy’s name in Iran.
یورانس \ یورینس = uranus
نیپچوُن  / نیپٹوُن = Neptune

[The ones in blue are Persian, black Arabic and green Urdu transliterations.]

Pluto is has been demoted! No longer a real planet but classified as a member of dwarf planets, in case you were not aware.


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## lcfatima

Thanks Faylasoof I was just about to ask about the Urdu equivalents.


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## arsham

and thanks to Fayla! what follows has just few additional details

Mercury =  تیر MPers. tīr
Venus = ناهید  MPers. anāhīd
Earth = زمین  MPers. zamiīg
Mars = بهرام  MPers. wahrām
Jupiter = برجیس و هرمزد/ اورمزد MPers. ohrmazd
Saturn = کیوان MPers. kēwān
Uranus =  اورانوس pronounced orānūs
Neptune = نپتون  pronounced nepton

Obviously, the Arabic names are also used in Persian!


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## panjabigator

Faylasoof said:


> Yes, really nice to know at last!
> 
> BTW, for theAncient Greeks, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν; Roman: Neptūnus) was the god of the sea but as "The Earth-Shaker," also of earthquakes and Uranus (Οὐρανός) was the father of Kronos (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).
> 
> The relationship between these names in Graeco-Roman mythology is:
> 
> Mars (_Ares_ in Greek) was the son of Jupiter, Jupiter (_Zeus_) the son of Saturn, and Saturn (_Kronos_) the son of Uranus (_Poseidon_).
> 
> I wish we had made a thread for this topic in all the Indo-Iranian languages. Then we would learn even more. Anyway, apart from the above names here which some Urduphone astrologers (count me out) use, here is what we use in astronomy:
> 
> عطارد̤ u_T_ārid = تير tīr= Mercury
> زهره zuhra = ناهيد nāhīd = Venus – both popular female names
> ارض arẓ = کُرہ ارض kura(h)-e-arz =  كُرہ زمین kura(h)-e-zamiin = earth
> مريخ mirrīx = بـﮩرام bahrām = Mars – the latter still used as a boy’s name in Iran and amongst the Zoroastrians everywhere.
> مشتري mushtarī= برجيس birjīs= Jupiter  - Used as a boy’s name in India too. Remember برجيس قدر Birjīs Qadr?
> زحل zuḥal = کيوان  kaiwān = Saturn – boy’s name in Iran.
> یورانس \ یورینس = uranus
> نیپچوُن  / نیپٹوُن = Neptune
> 
> [The ones in blue are Persian, black Arabic and green Urdu transliterations.]
> 
> Pluto is has been demoted! No longer a real planet but classified as a member of dwarf planets, in case you were not aware.



Which ones are more popular?  Does one set represent a higher register?


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## BP.

^which language are you talking about? In Urdu, I'm used to the ones in black.


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## panjabigator

BelligerentPacifist said:


> ^which language are you talking about? In Urdu, I'm used to the ones in black.



That's what I meant.  Thanks.

I remember reading an article where Earth was the <kurrah e arz> and not <zamīn>, so I was lead to believe that the Arabic ones are more popular.


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## BP.

gator, a _kura_ is simply a sphere or a globe. We could just as well have _kura e mirriix_ for example. But to people in general only our planet is relevant as a globe (ignorable blabber-> since we need to measure distances not on a straight line but on a continuously-differentiable spherical manifold i.e. geodesic distances). Earth is as much _zamiin_ as it is _arz_.


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## Faylasoof

Perhaps there are several reasons why the Arabic names are used more. As Arsham alluded, these names are also used in Persian. 

In the Middle Ages when science in the Islamic world was at its height most of the works were written in Classical Arabic and these included seminal works in astronomy. I’m talking about, people like Nasiruddin Tusi, Ibn al-Shaa_T_ir, Abu RayHaan Biruni, Olugh Beg etc. There were also several works in astrology. These  too written in Arabic, though I must say I can’t recall any authors as I’ve never been interested in this.  So in either case we’ve ended up with the Arabic terminology.

There might also other (cultural) reasons. For example, تير tīr in both Farsi and Urdu also means <arrow>, and ناهيد nāhīd is also a very popular female name. I tend to think of my female relations and family friends when I hear this name. Similarly, برجيس birjīs is a boy’s name. In fact, I always think of Birjīs Qadr (roughly means _Jupiter Augustus_), son and the heir apparent of Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of Awadh, and his queen, Hazrat MaHal, who defied the British in 1857 and escaped to Nepal, where she is buried after being killed by some local bandits. BTW, Birjīs (Jupiter) is still used as boy’s name in Indo-Pak.

On the other hand, one could argue that in (higher register, formal) Urdu we use مشتري mushtarī to also mean < گاہَک_gaahag_ =buyer / بائِع_baai’_= vendor>. But that is not always so in common speech.

Incidentally, in Urdu the word for planets is <سيار ه _sayyaarah_ (sing.) and سيارے_sayyare_ (pl.)> [From Arabic where in fact سيارة is a car!]


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## panjabigator

I for some reason thought that سيار ه meant solar system. What is the word for "solar system?"  <qāyanāt> is universe.


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## BP.

Solar system is _nizaam e shamsi_.

Universe is spelt _kaaynaat_. Not every k you hear is actually a q!


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## panjabigator

BelligerentPacifist said:


> Solar system is _nizaam e shamsi_.
> 
> Universe is spelt _kaaynaat_. Not every k you hear is actually a q!



  Thank you!


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## Qureshpor

It appears that anyone who has any knowledge of or connection with astrology would be familiar with a book called "Lal Kitab" or "Red Book". I became aware of it only recently and it seems that its authorship is disputed although a certain Pundit Rup Chand Joshi (1898-1982) is given credit for publishing five volumes of it in Hindi (between 1939-1952) based on the original Urdu. For interested parties, here is a link to Volume 3.

http://ia700303.us.archive.org/2/items/LalKitab1941/LK-1941.pdf

 The links below provide further information about "Lal Kitab".

http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/shatendra/skslalkitab.html

http://jyotipancholi.blogspot.com/2011/03/difference-between-lal-kitab-vedic.html

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=...&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

There are many Youtube videos on "Lal Kitab". A couple of examples are:

1) Introduction to lal Kitab or Red Book by Umang Taneja (Hindi)
2) Bas ab Dukh aur nahi (Lal Kitab Amrit)


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