Dictionary of Proper Names

Selected from Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works (1989/1996)

O

Oates, Titus (1649-1705), English politician whose claim of Roman Catholics plotting to seize power strengthened the anti-Catholic Whig Party. In 1685 he was convicted of perjury, flogged, & imprisoned.

Ochterlony Sir David (1758-1825), born & educated in USA, joined East India Co.’s Bengal Army in 1777. In 1781-3, he served in Col. T.D. Pearse’s regiment, one of the five under Commander-in-Chief Sir Eyre Coote (1720-83) whom Gov.-Gen Hastings had dispatched from Calcutta to counter Hyder Ali of Mysore who had invaded Karnataka, as in 1759-60, Coote had defeated the French at Wandiwash (Vandavasi), taken Arcot & Pondicherry ending French power in India. In 1781 Coote attacked Hyder who had besieged Vandavasi & freeing Vandavasi, marched on Cuddalore, attacked Chelambakam & won at Porto Novo, defeated Hyder at Perambakam, released British imprisoned in Vellore Fort & captured Chittoor (c.450 km north of Vellore) but was routed by Hyder at Arnee (280 km NW of Vandavasi & 210 km SE of Vellore) in 1782. Ochterlony, taken prisoner at the siege of Cuddalore in 1783, was rescued by Pearse in 1784. In 1803-8, Lt. Colonel Ochterlony commanded a regiment under General Gerard Lake (1744-1808) in the fertile land between the Ganges & Jamunā [such fertile lands were coveted & fought over as was those between Krishna (q.v.) & Tungabhadra; & between Hyderabad & Mysore]. In 1903, he helped Lake (Commander-in-Chief of Brit Indian Army, 1801-07) engage Sindhia & Holkar at Koel, storm Aligarh, & capture Delhi, for which Lake appointed him Resident at Delhi. While there he is said to have adopted Moghul culture & married 13 wives whom he treated every evening to an elephant ride.

In 1804 Lake’s armies attacked Sindhia taking from him Agra & Lashwari; then attacked Holkar & took Deeg from him. In October 1805, Lake made four unsuccessful attempts to take Bharatpur in Rajasthan (40 km west of Agra) then made peace with its Raja; in December they defeated Holkar at Amritsar. In 1808, Ochterlony was made commandant of Allahabad. In 1808, he led a column to the Sutlej & fought Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Made Maj.-General in 1814, his was the only one successful of the four columns that the E.I. Co. sent to invade Nepal. He captured Fort Nalagur defeated Amar Singh & took Malown in 1815 for which he was made Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB) & Baronet. Since in 1816, he defeated the Ghurkha army within 20 miles of Kathmandu & extracted a treaty, he was made the first Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (GCB). In 1817-18, he took part in the Pindari-Mahratta wars that E.I. Co. incited. Later he extracted a treaty & settlement with Amir Khan of Afghanistan. In 1818-22, after the British-Afghan alliance had crushed the Maratha Confederacy, Ochterlony was made Resident of Rājputāna, Delhi, & Mālwā. He resigned in 1826 when his choice in the Bharatpur succession imbroglio was overruled by Lord William Pitt Amherst (1773-1857) the then Gov.-Gen. of India – which insult is said to have hastened his death while at Meerut. For his selfless service in establishing the unity & prosperity of our motherland we immortalised this Angel’s love for us in the 100 ft. Ochterlony monument. [Sieved from Buckland; added other sources]

O’Connell Daniel (1775-1847), first of the great 19^th century Irish M.P.s; he brought about the Emancipation Act of 1829 by which Roman Catholics were permitted to sit in Parliament & to hold public office. Hence is known as the Liberator.

Octavia called Octavia Minor (69-11 BC); she married Mark Antony in 40 BC, when he was ruling the Roman Empire. At first this marriage helped to reduce tensions between Antony & her brother Octavian (later Augustus Caesar), & when they quarrelled in 37 BC, Octavia brought about peace between them, which resulted in the Treaty of Tarentum. But the following year Antony left Italy to command troops in Parthia & resumed his liaison with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. In 32 BC he divorced Octavia, yet she raised his children by her as well as by Cleopatra.

Ode Odes of William Collins published in 1747.

Ode Wordsworth’s Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, written in 1805-06 & published in his collection Poems in Two Volumes (1807).

Ode on Spring one of the earliest poems of Thomas Gray written c.1742.

Ode on (the Pleasure Arising from) Vicissitude one of Gray’s last poems.

Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands by William Collins written in 1749 & published posthumously.

Ode to Duty by Wordsworth included in his Poems in Two Volumes (1807).

Ode to Evening one of the best-known odes of Collins, published in 1747.

Ode to Liberty by Collins published in 1747.

Odin Norsemen’s name of the chief Germanic god Wotan: host of dead heroes & patron of poetry; though also the god of war he was less interested it than his son Thor.

O’Donnell, C.J. M.P., aggrieved at the open partisanship of British officials towards Muslims during the Swadeshi movement, asked in the House of Commons: “May I ask since when has it become a part of the policy of the Brit people to sub-divide our possessions to the religious tenets of their inhabitants?”

Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) son & successor of Laertes the king of Ithaca, famed for his strategy & wise counsel, led his contingent in the Trojan War.

Odyssey Greek epic by Homer in 24 books. It describes the ten years of adventures of Odysseus after the Trojan War before returning home to Ithaca.

Oedipus son of King Laius of Thebes & his queen Jocasta. Since it was foretold he would murder his father, he was left on a mountain. Found & brought up by a shepherd he was brought to the king of Corinth. When Oedipus grew up, he learned from an oracle that he would kill his father & marry his mother. So, thinking that the king & queen of Corinth were his real parents, he fled Corinth. At a cross-road he met Laius, quarrelled with him, killed him & then proceeded to Thebes. There he gained the widowed queen’s hand by answering the riddle of the Sphinx. The prophecy was thus fulfilled. After many years Oedipus learned the truth from the seer Tiresias the shepherd & blinded himself; Jocasta committed suicide.

Oedipus Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the most powerful & haunting of Greek tragedies.

Oenone by Tennyson in which Oenone is a fountain nymph of Mt. Ida.

Mount Oeta a triangular outlier of the Pindus Mountains in central Greece. Oïleus epithet of Locrian Ajax, son of Oileus, a legendary Locrian king.

Okakura Kakuzo (1862-1913), Japanese art critic, interested in Asian reawakening & solidarity. In India he stayed at Belur Math. His manuscript dealing with Pan-Asiatic cultural connections was rewritten by Sister Nivedita & named The Ideals of the East (1903). It bore the stamp of Swami Vivekananda’s ideology on Asia. Okakura inspired P. Mitter & Saralā Devi to start revolutionary centres in Bengal.

Oliver Twist hero of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

Olympian all gods & goddesses living on Olympus, the mountain at the east end of the range forming the northern boundary of Thessaly & Greece proper.

Olynthian of Olynthus, Greek city on the peninsula of Chalcidice.

Omar (Khayyam) (c.1048-1122), Persian poet, mathematician, astrologer, was called Khayyam (tent-maker) probably because of his father’s occupation. He is known mostly by his Rubaiyats, epigrammatic verse quatrains.

O’Neill, Turlough Sir Turlough Luineach O’Neill (1530-95), Earl of Clanconnell. Though pledged to England he maintained his predecessor’s sympathy with Scots & their defiance of English authority (see Scotland).

Onan of On (Heliopolis), ancient city of Egypt, noted for worship of Helios (q.v.).

Onward English fortnightly of Calcutta [see SABCL 26:387 & 22:185-89].

Ooty Udhagamandalam, administrative headquarters of Nilgiri district in Tamil Nadu. It is situated in the Nilgiri Hills at about 7,500 ft. above sea level. Founded by the Brit in 1821, it was used as the official government summer headquarters for the Madras Presidency until 1947. Utaka-mand (Udhagamandalam), cluster of huts, is what the Todas, the original residents of the neel-giri (blue-hills), called their villages. In 1602, Salvation came to theses ‘savages’ in the shape of Father Ferrieri who “crossed this wild, mountainous country full of tigers, elephants & other ferocious beasts” with the Word of God. But instead of falling gratefully at his Saviour Feet, their souls chose Damnation & the gracious Father granted it. Therefore, Perdition ascended their Goddamned race in wake of Beatification brought by the Brit celestials who First Discovered this plateau & baptized it Ootacamund which their snooty avant-garde distilled to Ooty. To John Sullivan, Collector of Coimbatore, goes the honour of being The First to Build a House here in 1820; he was followed by officials, European tea-planters, European anthropologists, European health-seekers & other celestials (e.g. ICS gentlemen) who, says anthropologist Ms Downes, “built little gabled cottages called Apple Cottage & Cheerful Cottage, turreted houses called Woodcut Hall & Grasmere Lodge. From then onwards, ‘Madras’ families built their summer houses, &, by 1870s, the Governor of Madras & his whole secretariat moved up…for the hot weather.” Once its sole black blot (those wild Toada ‘toads’) was shoved deep down the ravines, Ooty acquired the “lure-soft, subtle & persistent spirit of peaceful English countryside serenity” & Lord Lytton (Viceroy 1876-80) wrote from his palace here to his wife: “…The afternoon was rainy & the road was muddy, but such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud. Imagine Hertfordshire lanes, Devonshire downs, Westmoreland lakes, Scotch trout streams & Lusitanian views.” (This story illustrates how & why the European emancipated this subcontinent.) [Essence of Southern Railway: A Saga of 150 Glorious Years, 1852-2003, by R.R. Bhandāri, S. Railways, Chennai, pp.61-62]

The Gaekwād, always in search of congenial health-resorts, purchased Farrington House in 1889. There in the summer of 1895, he had to decide the fate of Bāpat.

Ophelia In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, daughter of Polonius.

Orcades Latin name of Orkney (q.v.).

Orcus Roman for Greek Dis, god of Hades.

Oread(s) Greek nymph(s) of mountain caves & tops; close to Artemis, the huntress, with whom they play & dance.

Orestes only son of Clytemnestra & Agamemnon. When a child, his father was murdered by Clytemnestra & her lover Aegisthus, & he was exiled. He returned & killed the lovers.

The Orient Orient Illustrated Weekly of Calcutta started probably in 1936.

Orion The Orion or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas was originally written by Tilak as an essay & submitted to the Ninth Oriental Congress held in London in 1892, & brought international reputation to him. Since for nearly four years prior to it, he had been convinced that by over-emphasising the philological & linguistic aspect of the antiquity of the Vedas the eminent western Orientalists had vitiated their findings, after making additions & alterations suggested to him by further thought & discussion, Tilak brought it out in book-form in 1893 under the title The Orion or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas. It is a monument to his erudition, which acquired worldwide recognition in oriental research. A few months later, Prof. M. Bloomsfield of the John Hopkins University, Baltimore, commented on it in his address at the 18^th anniversary of the University on 24 Feb.1894: “...I proposed to myself to continue to turn a few leaves of the book with the amused smile of orthodoxy.... But soon the amused smile gave way [&] superficial reading was soon replaced by absorbing study, &... I confess that the author has convinced me in all essential points.... History, the chronic readjuster, shall have her hands uncommonly full to assimilate the results of Tilak’s discovery & arrange her paraphernalia in the new perspective.... [He] proves conclusively that the vernal equinox of the earliest period was in the constellation of the Orion, i.e., 4500 years ago.... Hindus like Tilak startle us & make us look to our laurels; but they are simply repeating history of thousands of years ago...” Seeing the international reputation Orion had brought Tilak, & how Tilak’s role in the Bāpat Case had also proved his own administration was above suspicion, Maharaja Sayājirao offered to pay him a few thousand rupees if he would translate an English treatise. Tilak replied: “I am not born to earn my bread by making translations for others. I am actuated with the spirit of some century-work for the age I am living in.” [S.L. Karandikar; s/a Arctic Home in the Vedas]

Orkney Orkney Islands or Orkneys, Scottish county consisting of over 70 islands.

Ormuz Hormuz, island off South Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf & the Gulf of Oman. The town of Hormuz on the mainland had an abundance of palm, indigo, grain & spices, & by c.1200 it monopolized trade with India & China. It relocated to the island due to the invasion of Jenghiz Khan. There too it gradually superseded Qeys as the most important Persian emporium, & market for Indian goods.

Orontes a river formed in the valley of El Bika in Lebanon; it flows through Syria & Turkey into the Mediterranean.

Orpheus Thracian bard, referred to as “inventor of music”. The music of his lyre charmed the wild beasts, the trees, & the rocks. He married the nymph Eurydice. She met her death by a snake-bite while fleeing the advances of Aristaeus; & Orpheus, disconsolate, went to Hades in search of her. The gods of the underworld, charmed by his music, restored his wife to him, but forbade him to look at her until he reached the earth. He disobeyed, & Eurydice vanished. When Orpheus returned to Thrace, his grief led him to scorn all women. Orpheus is said to have founded Orphism or Orphic mysteries, the secret religious rites in the worship of Dionysus.

Osbourne, Lloyd (1868-1947), American writer who collaborated with Stevenson (q.v.) in the writing of The Wrong Box, The Wrecker, & Ebb Tide.

Oscan(s) Italic tribe that first settled Pompeii & Herculaneum in Campania, Italy.

Ossa a mountain of NE Thessaly in Greece (see Pelion).

Ossian Scottish Gaelic name for Oisin, an Irish warrior-poet called Ossian. MacPherson (q.v.) produced two epics, Fingal & Tremor, purporting to be translations from the Gaelic of Ossian. They were much admired by Goethe & others for their romantic spirit & rhythm, but their authenticity was challenged notably by Dr. Johnson. The epics infuriated Irish scholars because they mixed Fenian & Ulster legends indiscriminately & because Macpherson claimed the Irish heroes were Caledonians & a glory to Scotland’s rather than Ireland’s past.

Ottoman (from Arabic Uthman) Ottomans were the successors of Osman I (1259-1326), the ruler of a Turkmen principality in NW Anatolia, who is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state [s/a Abdul-Hamid, & Islam].

Ouranos Greek sky-god.

Ouspensky Peter Demianovitch (1878-1947), Russian philosopher, influential disciple of Gurdjieff. He broke away from Gurdjieff in 1924.

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC- AD 17), Roman poet who influenced the imaginative interpretation of the classics of his time & its technical accomplishment.

Oxus river (now Amu Darya) in central & eastern Asia, flowing from the Pamir Plateau to the Aral Sea. Sri Aurobindo’s phrase “the Oxus of the poet” refers to Matthew Arnold’s uses Oxus as an image in his poem Sohrab & Rūstum.

Oyomei (1472-1529), Japanese name of the Chinese scholar-official whose idealistic interpretation of Neo-Confucianism influenced philosophical thinking in East Asia.