Ganguly (surname)

Ganguly (also called Ganguli,Ganguly, Gangulee, Gangoly or Gangopadhyay) is an Indian family name of a Bengali Kanyakubja Brahmin caste; it is a variant of Gangopadhyay(a) Gônggopaddhae). Gangopadhyay (compound of village name "By the Ganges" and "upādhyāya" denoting "priest, teacher") is the Sanskritized form of the original name anglicized to Ganguly. The historical book 'Jāti-Bhāṣkar' mentions that those who were given grants along the Ganges by Ballāl Sena were called Gangopādhyāya (literally 'the Vedic teachers in the regions around the Ganges').

The ancestors of Gangulys are from a hermit or saint called Savarna Muni, belonging to the family of Bhrigu and thus all Gangulys have the same Savarna Gotra, and Bhaargava-Vaitahavya-Savedasa tri pravara which means they are from the same ancestral root.

The Savarna Roychoudhury family of Kolkata are actually Gangopadhyay. The titles Roy and later Choudhury were bestowed on their ancestor Lakshmikanta Gangopadhyay by the Muslim emperors Akbar and Jahangir. Job Charnok had purchased three villages from this family. These three villages became Kolkata during the rule of East India Company.

There are 7,50,065 people using this surname.

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