Duplicate Names In Ramayana and Mahabharata

This is not part of my previous series “Relationships in Mahabharata”. Have you ever wonder if there are any duplicate names that are used in Ramayana or Mahabharata or any other mythologies. Twist to the tale will be father child combination should not allowed e.g.: Son of Vasudeva is also known as Vasudeva Krishna and Son of Pandavas are known as Upa-pandavas. After applying these conditions still there are quite a few names which are repeated either in Mahabharata or Ramayana or Both. Mentioned below are some of the same names used across these two mythologies where both characters are not directly related to each other. Let me know if I had missed anyone in this context. I am starting with the most famous ones and to the lesser known characters in the list of same names. I also created a Just Missed category too, where names are quite similar but not same.

1.      Rama and Balrama - Rama is the incarnation of god Vishnu and Balarama was considered as incarnation of Ananta Sesha (Sesha Naag). Rama is the main protagonist of Ramayana and Balarama is the King of Yadav Dynasty, elder brother of Krishna and Subhadra and one of the major character in Mahabharata. His original birth name was Rama but due to his immense strength he is been called as Balrama. Probably he is the only Nameshake of this list of same and similar names.

2.     Mahabali and Bali – Mahabali is also known as Bali who is the Asura king and grandson of Pralhada in Indian mythologies. He is been sent to Patala by fifth reincarnation of Vishnu i.e. Vamana Avatara. He conquered Underground, Earth and Heaven and Vishnu in his Vamana avatar got Earth and Heaven back and send him to rule Underground. He is considered as one of the seven Chiranjivi’s (Immortals) of hindu mythologies.

Bali is a famous character in Ramayana. He is also known as Vali. He is the vanara king and twin brother of Sugriva. He got killed by Rama on the request of Sugriva, who wants to take his wife back.

3.     Arjuna and Kartavirya Arjuna - Arjuna was one of the pandavas and the greatest warrior of Mahabharata. So Arjuna from Mahabharata needs no introduction hence skipping him and introducing Kratavirya Arjuana. 
Kartavirya Arjuana's power was popularly told in Ramayana. He was the contemporary of Ravana and also defeated him in a one to one combat. After this victory Kartavirya Arjuana actually imprisoned Ravana. Kartavirya Arjuna also killed Parshurama's father. This cause Parshurama, not only to kill Kratvirya Arjuna and his entire clan by his Axe but also rescued Ravana from the prison of Arjuna. He is famously known as Kratavirya mainly due to his father name as Kritavirya and probably extreme popularity of the name Arjuna in Indian mythology.

4.     Krishna and Krishna Dvaipayana - They both are from Mahabharata and if one is the Architect of Mahabharata then other one is the Creator of Mahabharata. If one is god then other one is the devotee of that god. Krishna is the eighth reincarnation of god Vishnu and actually the whole Mahabharata somehow turned out as his own game plan to teach human being the importance of Devotion and Karma.  
Ved Vyasa is the creator of Mahabharata and was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. His lesser known but original name was Krishna Dvaipayana, because of his dark complexion (Krishna) and his birth at an Island (Dweep). He got his name as Ved Vyasa to symbolize the one who classified Vedas in four parts.

5.     Chitrangada and Chitrāngadā - Here the spelling of the names are different but they are actually pronounced in exact same way. The first Chitrangada is the eldest son of Shantanu and Satyawati. He was the most capable king of Hastinapur after Devabrata (Bhisma) but died at very young age while fighting a duel with Gandharva. 
Whereas Chitrāngadā is the wife of Arjuna. Arjuna married to Chitrāngadā during his exile from Indraprastha. The exile was caused because Arjuna was forced to violate Yudhistira and Droupadi's privacy. During this exile when Arjuna reached to ancient Manipura he fell in love with Chitrāngadā and requested to marry her. Her father Chitravahana agreed on the condition that any of their children would remain in Manipur as Chitravahana's heir. In this case same name is used for both Male and Female characters.
Some versions of Mahabharata do mention son of Shantanu and Satyawati as Chitrangad rather than Chitrangada then in that case too there was another person named Chitrangad exists in Mahabharata. He was the Kashi king and father of princess Bhanumati, who later became wife of Duryodhana. Duryodhana was the main antagonist of Mahabharata.

6.     Bharata and Bharata - Bharata was the brother of Rama, he was the second son of King Dasharatha and belong to the Solar Dynasty. His mother Kaikeyi actually conspire during his absence and send Rama to 14 years of exile. He tried to convince Rama to come back and Rule Ayodha, when Rama didn't agreed then he actually governed Ayodhya, not as a ruler, but as a Rama's representative. 
Bharata or Emperor Bharata is one of the greatest king from Lunar Dynasty. He is the one whose name is used to name the epic as Mahabharata and also to the country India as Bharat or Bharatavarsha. He was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala. He ruled virtuously and earned great fame and was known by the titles of "Chakravarti" (emperor) and after him it was Yudhistira from that Dynasty who got the title of "Chakravarti Samrat" (the emperor).

7.      Ashwathama and Ashwathama - This same character names are referred on the 15th day of Kurkshetra war. Ashwathama is the son of guru Drona and has medium role in Mahabharata. The other Ashwathama was an elephant of Karuva army. First Ashwathama is considered immortal and the second one is been killed by Bheema to plot the death of Guru Drona (The father of Ashwathama). Probably this is the only incident in mythology where a human being and an animal shared same name.

8.     Lakshman and Laksman Kumara - Lakshman was one of the three brothers of Rama, in Ramayana. He was very close to Rama and accompanied Rama in his 14 years of exile. He and his twin brother Shatrughna were borne to Sumitra. Lakshman is believed to be incarnation of Ananta Sesha (Sesha Naag). In Mahabharata, Laksman Kumara or Simply Laksman was the son of Duryodhana. Lakshman got slained by Abhimanyu (Son of Arjuna) on the 13^th Day of Kurukshetra War when Abhimanyu fought inside guru Drona’s chakra view (Circular formation) to stop Kaurava army to capture Yudhishtira.

9.     Sahadeva and Sahadeva - Sahadeva was the youngest Pandava in Mahabharata. Nakula and Sahadeva are twin brothers born to Madri, who had invoked Ashwini Kumaras using Kunti’s boon. Sahadeva was very good in Astrology and had the capabilities to foresee the future. He took oath to kill Shakuni and accomplished this task on 18^th day of Kurukshetra war.

Another Sahadeva is the son of Jayadratha who was placed on the throne of Magadha by the Pandavas on the former's death in a duel with the Pandava prince Bhima. This Sahadeva got killed in Kurukshetra war. 

10. Chitrasena and Chitrasena – Chitrasena was a Gandharva in Mahabharata and taught Arjuna the dancing and singing skills, which Arjuna used in his 13^th year of the exile as Brihannala. Chitrasena also along with lord Indra convinced Urvashi to reduce the curse (to become Eunuch) on Arjuna only 1 year. In one of the incidences during 12 years of exile for Pandavas, Chitrasena defeated Karna and captured Duryodhana, but Arjuna came and rescued Duryodhana because Yudhistira ordered him to do so.

Karna had nine sons, Chitrasena was the third one. Not much been said about this Chitrasena in Mahabharata, except that he got killed by Nakula during Kurukshetra war

11.   Sudeshna and Sudeshna – Sudeshna was the wife of King Virata in Mahabharata. She don’t have much role play in Mahabharata but her son Uttar and daughter Uttara are important characters in Mahabharata along with her husband Virata and brother Keechaka. During 13^th year of exile for Pandavas, Draupadi disguised as her maid Sairandhri. Sudeshna helped her Brother Keechak to get Droupadi by ordering her to get wine from Keechaka’s house alone, which actually triggered events like Keechaka Vadh and Hastinapur’s attack to Virata kingdom etc.
The second Sudeshna is one of the 10 sons of Krishna and Rukmini. This is the case similar to the name Chitrangada where same name is used for Male and female both.

12.  Vajra and Vajradatta – Here both the characters are from Mahabharata and came to picture sometime after Kurukshetra war. Vajra was one of the last surviving members of the yadava dynasty. He was great grandson of Krishna and grandson to Krishna and Rukmini’s first son Pradyumna. Post Yadava destruction and Dwarka submerge, he was proclaimed as king of Mathura at Indraprastha.

Vajradatta was son of Bhagadatta. Being child at the time of Kurukshetra war he did not participated in that war. Post war when Yudhistira organized Ashwamedhya Yangya, Vajradatta made an attempt to hold the horse to avenge his father’s death in Kurukshetra war at the hands of Arjuna. He was defeated by Arjuna, after a prolonged battle.

13.  Niramitra and Niramitra – Nakula married Karenumati, daughter of Sishupal and Niramitra was there son. Nothing much was written about this character in Mahabharata.
Other one is the Trigata Prince named Niramitra. There are references of Trigata king in Mahabharata where he attacked Virata kingdom on last day of 13 years exile for Panadavas and also took away Arjuna from the battle field on 13^th day of the war so that Drona can form the chakraview (Circular Formation) but in all those context the name Niramitra is missing so assume being a prince of the same Dynasty he was also part of some if not all of those incidences. He actually got killed by Sahadeva in Kurukshetra war.

If we take this context beyond Mahabharata then the last king recorded for Kuru Dynasty or specific Pandava or Arjun Dynasty (Arjuna->Abhimanyu->Parikshit so on) was Kshameka. The third Niramitra was the father of Kshameka. The whole list of dynasty is mentioned here.

Just Missed - Mentioned below is the list of characters from Ramayana and Mahabharata whose names are different due to change of only few alphabets. Starting up with closest dissimilarity to the visible dissimilarities.

1.      Shrutakirti and Shrutakriti – At first look their names seems exactly same but there is one alphabet difference between these two names.

Shrutakirti was the wife of Shatrughna, the youngest brother of lord Rama in Ramayana. She was also the cousin sister of Sita.

Whereas Shrutakriti was mother of Shishupal and sister of Vasudev in Mahabharata. Vasudev was the father of lord Krishna. So Shurtakriti was actually sister to both Vasudeva and Kunti.

2.     Valandhara and Balandhara – Some contexts do mentioned that Valandhara and Balandhara are the same persons, as both are from Kashi Dynasty. Although there are some other contexts available which does not allow to believe in this story. In Mahabharata, Valandhara was one of the wives of Bhima and Sarvaga was their son from this marriage. She was one of the many minor characters of Mahabharata. Same is the case of Balandhara, she was also very fond of Bheema and want to marry him.

Now Balandhara was also the real sister of Bhanumati, the wife of Duryodhana. As there was extreme rivalry between Duryodhana and Bheema throughout the Mahabharata, which caused that marriage would never happen. Some context mention that Bhanumati and Balandhara are from Trigata Dynasty not from the Kashi Dynasty. Which so ever story is true, it has enough reasons to believe that they are different persons and their names are closely matched.

3.     Karna and Vikarna – These two are famous characters of Mahabharata, especially Karna. Like Arjuna, Karna also need no introduction here. He is portrayed as the one of the tragic heroes of Mahabharata.

Vikarna is the brother of Duryodhana. Among 100 sons of Gandhari and Dhritarastra, Vikarna is their third born. Some version of Mahabharata mentioned that he is the only one from the Kaurava camp who raised his voice not only against the dice game as whole but also during the mistreatment of Draupadi. Again Karna and Vikarna are not related but share similar name.

4.     Mahiravan, Ahiravan and Ravan – Ending this blog with brothers and cousins, still didn’t broke the rule of father child combination. Mahiravan and Ahiravan are real brothers and both are cousin brother of Ravan. In ramayanya, Ahiravan and Mahiravan captured Rama and Laxmana to underground location with a plan to kill them. Hanuman came and saved their life. Ravan is the main antagonist of Ramayana.

5.     Rama and Parshurama – Here there name had quite a difference but the similarity is in their birth. Both are incarnation of lord Vishnu. Both born with greater purpose and also to kill many threat of humanity from earth and establish peace. One born to kill Ravan and other born to kill Kratavirya Arjun. Rama is the main protagonist of Ramayana. Parshurama is been referred in both Ramayana and Mahabharata along with his own stories.  They are so much famous in mythologies that any detail I provide will not suffice there glory.

If I find any same or similar named characters in these two or other mythologies I will add them up to the respective list. Also, I found it easier to describe all these characters in my own words rather than copy it from various internet sources. So please pardon me if I had made any mistakes or cut short too much about any character(s) while describing them. Please let me know in comments if you find I had missed any of the pair here in this blog. I originally wrote this article as an answer in Quora and modified it to suite an independent article. Check my original answer here.

©Tapas Majumdar