iii. The Use of Baga in Names

Baga– as a name element occurs in names of towns, e.g., Bagadāta-, modern Baghdad “given by baga” or “established by baga,” *Bagadāna– “temple (?) of (the) god(s),” Old Armenian Bagaran, a town and a village (see Hübschmann), with derivative suffix –ka– Bactrian bagolaggo “altar” (or proper name “The Sanctuary”), today Baḡlān, name of the region (see Henning), Bagastāna– in Media “place of the gods,” so named after the nearby Bīsotūn carvings and inscriptions, Bag(e)is in Lydia; rivers, e.g., Bagrades, today Nābendrūd, Bagossala, probably modern Bug, Ukraine; and mountains, e.g., tò Bagístanon óros at Bagastāna, see above, Bagôon óros between Areia and Drangiana (see Pauly-Wissowa, II, 2, cols. 2765-74; S. I, col. 237). Most of the names, however, are personal names and exclusively men’s names. All three Indo-European name types are attested, namely, one-stem-names (“short names”), derivatives (mostly hypocoristica), and compound names. Short names are seldom (e.g., Baga inscription of Priene, 1st cent. A.D.; perhaps Vaga, “Indoscythian” stratega inscription, ca. 20 A.D.). The hypocoristica (e.g., Bagaios, Bagauka-) have been treated in many articles by R. Schmitt (see Schmitt, 1982 and “Indogermanische Chronik”). Of compound names, Bagabigna– and Bagahuxša– are attested in the Old Persian inscriptions (see IPNB), but more than 60 other Old Iranian names are found from the sixth or even eighth century B.C. in Aramaic, Armenian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Elamite, Greek, Hebrew, Indo-Arian, Latin, Lydian, and Lykian tradition, see Schmitt, 1982 with references, also to the studies on the phonetic shape of Old Iranian baga– in these languages respectively. The Middle Iranian names are only partially published, see Gignoux, 1980a, 1980b, and forthcoming parts of Iranisches Personennamenbuch. At present, four baga names are known from epigraphical Middle Persian: ʾtwrbg, bgʾtwr, bgʾwhrm[zd], plnbgy (this itself part of compounds), and one from Sogdian: βγyfrn. On the linguistic classification and interpretation of these compound names, see Schmitt, 1981, and Zimmer, 1984.

Contrary to the opinion of Gignoux, 1980a and b, these names do not provide any evidence for the existence of an Iranian deity “Baga.” See the detailed analysis of the arguments in Zimmer, 1984. Old Iranian baga-, from Indo-Iranian *bhaga-, means “allotment, distribution,” later also “god” [but see also baga i, above], and in Middle Iranian bag/bay “god, lord” as a mode of address of gods and noble men. Nowhere in Iranian is this word a name. Only in India did the concept of “allotment, distribution” become the Āditya Bhaga.

Mayrhofer’s suggestion (Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary II, p. 457) that baga– in Iranian names replaces the old *daiva– whose meaning had been changed to “evil deity” by Zarathustra, is quite attractive, but hard to prove.

The Old Persian month name Bāgayādi– (q.v.) is interpreted by R. Schmitt as “(month of) worship of the god,” against Henning’s suggestion “(month of) fertilizing (?) the fields” (comparing Middle and Modern Persian bāḡ “garden” [q.v.]). This interpretation is supported by the parallel formation Açiyādiya/*Açiyādiš (Elamite) “(month of) fire-worship” (cf. the Middle Persian month Ādur, Armenian Ahekan</em>; see i, above). This could imply a special worship of Miθra (?) in one month, and of Ātar in the other, perhaps because of some major feasts celebrated in these months.

For place and personal names containing Baga-, see, e.g., bagaran</a>; bagawan</a>; bagayarīč; bagazušta</a>; baghdad</a>; bagratids.