Narayana - Secular Uses

Secular Uses

• Among the many people with the name Narayan are the novelist R.K. Narayan, the 10th President of India K. R. Narayanan, Infosys founder and Non-Executive Chairman of the board N. R. Narayana Murthy, the political activist Jayaprakash Narayan, the singer Udit Narayan and the Indo-Fijian stateswoman Irene Jai Narayan. Prithvi Narayan Shah founded the kingdom of Nepal

• There is also song "Narayan" by The Prodigy on their The Fat of the Land album, with the lyrical line "Om Namah Narayana". The song is co-composed and sung by Crispian Mills, singer and frontman of the English psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Kula Shaker covers the song in a version named "Song of Love/Narayana" in their Strangefolk album.

• In the video game Grand Theft Auto 2 from the Grand Theft Auto series, Narayana is the name of a neighbourhood occupied by the Hare Krishna street gang.

• In the video game Myst III: Exile, the final age to which the player travels is called Narayan. It consists of an ocean extending to the horizon, beneath a clouded sky in which float trees, suspended by bubbly "pearls" released periodically by the ocean.

• The name of the Siamese king Narai (r. 1656-1688) is a Thai pronunciation of Narayana.