Mukherjee

Origins

All Mukherjees belong to the Bharadwaj Gotra or the clan of Rishi Bharadwaj. The Mukherjees belong to the Kulin Brahmin class and are also classified as Radh Brahmins. The origins of most Brahmins in Southern Bengal was the Gangetic plains of Northern India, chiefly Kanauj. In the eleventh century AD., the ruler of Bengal, Adisara, is reputed to have brought five Brahmins known for their superior rank to the region. These Vedic Brahmins were supposed to have nine gunas (favoured attributes), among which was insistence on same rank marriages. Later,the Mukherjees, along with Banerjees, Chatterjees, Bhattacharjees and Gangulys moved on to settle on the western banks of the Bhagirathi river in Southern Bengal on the invitation of the Sena Dynasty of Bengal. The invitation was meant to establish Brahminism in Bengal which has been ruled by the Buddhist Pala dynasty for about four centuries. Though the first wave of Brahmin migration to Bengal started during the Maurya period and the Jain Acharya Bhadrabahu - regarded to be the preceptor of Chandragupta Maurya - is said to have been born in Brahmin family of Pundravardhana (or Puṇḍra), the medium to large scale migrations of Brahmins from other parts of India to Bengal, especially from the ancient Kanyakubja region, happened during the last part of the Buddhist Pala Empire and early part of Hindu Sena dynasty. . This region is known as Radh or Radh Bhoomi, leading to these clans of Brahmins being categorized as Radh Brahmins.

For several decades from the 1970s to the 1990s, the West Bengal Higher Secondary board mandatorily changed all spelling variants (Mukherjee, Mukerjee, Mookerji etc.) to Mukhopadhyay (as was done with Bannerjee, Ganguly, etc.)

Etymology

Note that "Mukherjee" evolved from the Sanskrit Mukhopadhyay (Bengali: মুখোপাধ্যায় Mukhopaddhae). Mukhopadhyay is from the purer Sanskrit form Mukhyopadhyay (in Sanskrit Mukhya – chief, Upadhyay – teacher, not necessarily a religious teacher). In modern parlance, the two are often used interchangeably, much like other such pairs (Banerjee/Bandhyopadhyay, Chatterjee/Chattyopadhyay, Ganguly/Gangopadhyay), with the latter being used primarily in religious contexts. How these interchangeable pairs arose is unknown. Another theory is that Upadhyay from Kanauj settled at different villages in present-day West Bengal and thus earned the prefixes of the villages before their Upadhay surname.

Mukhuti

Families with surnames Mukhati or Mukhuti are believed to be of the same origins as Mukherjees and it is possible that these surnames represent the older forms of the Mukherjee surname. According to another alternative hypothesis in common belief, Mukhati or Mukhuti came to be the surname of some Mukherjees who took to the fields and worked with the langol (plough) akin to the Bhumihars in neighbouring Bihar and are therefore sometimes called "langla bamun". Mukhoti village near Bankura, West Bengal may be the original village in this case (refer to Niharranjan Ray's "Bangalir Itihas").

There are several hypotheses on the origin of the jee in Mukherjee (and in the related Chatterjee and Banerjee surnames).

Deogharia

Families with surname Deogharia are also Mukherjee. The title of Deogharia belongs to Chatterjee families and are of Kashyap gotra of erstwhile Panchkot kingdom (near Adra, Purulia, West Bengal). The title of Deogharia was given by the kings to the Mukherjee families of that place who were involved in religious activities. However, now as neither there is any kingdom, nor any significance of such title, many are reconverting surname of their children back to Mukherjee.

Notable Mukherjees

Notable people with the last name Mukherjee:

Minor planet

25629 Mukherjee

A

Aarti Mukherji, singer

Abaninath Mukherji, revolutionary and co-founder of the Communist Party of India

Abhijit Mukherjee (born 1960), politician

Ajoy Mukherjee, fourth chief minister of West Bengal, India

Alok Mukherjee

Amal Kumar Mukherjee

Arindam Mukherjee, photojournalist

Arun Mukherjee, actor

Arundhati Mukherjee, actress

Ashutosh Mukherjee, writer

Asim Mukhopadhyay, historian

Ayan Mukherjee, Director

Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (1864–1924) Educationist, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta (1906–1924), and referred commonly as 'Bengal Tiger'.

B

Banaphool (Balaichand Mukherjee)

Barun Mukherjee, politician

Bela Mukhopadhyay, writer

Benode Behari Mukherjee (1904-1980), painter

Bharati Mukherjee (born 1940), singer

Bijan Kumar Mukherjea (1891-1956), judge

Biswanath Mukherjee, computer scientist

Budhaditya Mukherjee (born 1955), musician

Sir Biren Mukherjee - the architect of IISCO Burnpur

C

Chandrani Mukherjee, singer

Chayan Mukherjee

D

Debashis Mukherjee, theoretical chemist

Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890-1936)

Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee

H

Harish Chandra Mukherjee (1824–1861), journalist and patriot

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay (1920-1989), music director

Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1922-2006), director

J

Dr. Joia Mukherjee, physician

Jadugopal Mukherjee (1886-1976), revolutionary

Jaidip Mukerjea (born 1942), tennis player

Jatindra Nath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) (1879–1915), Freedom Fighter and Revolutionary Leader

Jolly Mukherjee, singer, songwriter, producer

Joy Mukherjee (1939-2012), actor and director

K

Kajol Mukherjee, Bollywood Actress

Kalyan Mukherjea, classical musician

Kalyan Mukherjee, politician

Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, Director

Kamalinee Mukherjee, actress

Kashinath Mukherjee, classical musician

Keshto Mukherjee, Comedian/Actor

M

M. Mukherjee

Madhabi Mukherjee, actor

Manabendra Mukherjee, Singer

Mahua Mukherjee, dancer

Manas Mukherjee

Mani Shankar Mukherjee, writer

Mithu Mukherjee, former cricketer

Mohua Mukherjee (born August 1952), author and activist

Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee

N

Nandini Mukherjee, computer scientist

Neel Mukherjee (disambiguation), several people

Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee

Nihar Mukherjee, former General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Centre of India party

P

Pranab Mukherjee, Current President of India

Prasun Mukherjee, Police Commissioner

Prasun Kumar Mukherjee, Managing Director, Sesa Goa Limited

Prithwindra Mukherjee (born 1936)

R

Raghu Mukherjee (born 1981), film director and model

Ratneswar Mukherjee (1908-1980), famous Kirtan singer

Rahul Mukerjee, academic and statistician

Raj Mukherji

Ram Kamal Mukherjee (born 1976), journalist, historian, and author

Ram Mukherjee, Rani's Father

Rani Mukherjee, Bollywood Actress

Robin Mukherjee, Indian cricketer

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, historian and author

S

Sri Sri Sarada Devi (Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya)

Sabyasachi Mukherjee (born 1974), fashion designer

Sagarika Mukherjee (born 1970), singer and actress

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay (born 1931), singer and musician

Sangram Mukherjee (born 1981), football player

Sapna Mukherjee, singer

Sarah Mukherjee (born 1967), correspondent

Sashadhar Mukherjee (died 1990), producer

Satish Chandra Mukherjee (1865-1948), educator

Satyabrata Mookherjee (born 1932), politician

Shantanu Mukherjee (born 1972), Shaan, singer

Sharbani Mukherjee, actress

Sharda Mukherjee (born 1919), Governor & w/o Subroto Mukerjee

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay (born 1935), author

Shomu Mukherjee, Kajol's Father, Director

Shyam Mukherjee, filmmaker

Shyam Mukherjee, politician

Syama Prasad Mukherjee (1901-1953), politician

Siddhartha Mukherjee (born 1970), physician

Sreelekha Mukherji, actress

Srijit Mukherji, director

Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Poet

Subhash Mukhopadhyay (physician) or Subhas Mukherjee

Subodh Mukherjee (1921-2005), filmmaker

Subrata Mukherjee, politician

Subroto Mukerjee, first Air Chief Marshal of Independent India

Sudip Mukherjee (born 1978), actor

Sujit Mukherjee, cricketer and writer

Suman Mukhopadhyay, filmmaker and theatre director

Suroopa Mukherjee, author

Sushmita Mukherjee, actress

Swastika Mukherjee (born 1980), actress

T

Tanisha Mukherjee, Tanisha, actress, Kajol's sister

Tanuja Mukherjee

U

Udayan Mukherjee, journalist

V

Vhaskar Mukherjee, Educator