A surname in the records

Khanna appears in Punjabi naming records. The Dictionary of American Family Names gives an account of the surname and its Punjabi context. Such dictionaries describe patterns in published evidence; they do not reconstruct every family that uses a name. A shared spelling cannot establish kinship, religious practice, caste or an individual’s mother tongue. When researching relatives, start with the places and dates documented by the family, and compare records made during their lifetimes. Transliterations may vary between archives, and an apparent match should be checked against other identifying details.[1]

A painter across Partition

The artist Krishen Khanna offers a documented example of the surname in twentieth-century cultural history. An artist profile from the JNAF records his birth in Lyallpur and childhood in Lahore, followed by his move to India after the Partition of 1947. It describes his transition from banking to working as an artist full time in 1961. In an interview, Khanna discussed how his experience of Partition continued to shape his response to the subject. His memories are evidence for his own life and art, rather than a single account of everyone displaced in 1947.[2][3]

Reading a name alongside an artwork

Saffronart’s exhibition introduction places Khanna’s paintings in relation to displacement and memory, drawing attention to the human figures in his work. An exhibition text is an interpretation as well as a useful guide to works and their context; it can be read beside the artist’s own interview. For family researchers, an art catalogue establishes an artist’s name and work, but it does not connect another Khanna family to him. Dates, names of relatives, locations and independently corroborated documents are more useful for testing a proposed family connection. The artist’s recollections can be compared with the exhibition’s account of the paintings, bearing in mind that an interview and an exhibition essay serve different purposes. Together they show how an individual’s experience can become part of a visual record of a much wider historical rupture.[4]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Dictionary of American Family Names via Ancestry. Khanna surname meaning ↗Written source · Source date: 2022 · Locator: Khanna surname meaning, Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd ed. (2022), as reproduced by Ancestry. Accessed 2026-11-04.The reproduced dictionary entry was checked. Its historical or linguistic explanation does not establish an individual’s identity, ancestry or kinship.Return to A surname in the records, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. JNAF. Krishen Khanna artist profile ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Artist biography. Accessed 2026-11-03.Published reference or historical record inspected; scope described.Return to A painter across Partition, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Vandana Kalra; The Indian Express. Krishen Khanna on turning 90 ↗Written source · Source date: 2015-07-19 · Locator: Artist interview and Partition. Accessed 2026-11-05.The publisher’s byline and first-publication date were checked. The artist’s interview is a personal recollection, not a substitute for independently checking the events recalled.Return to A painter across Partition, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Saffronart. Krishen Khanna exhibition introduction ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Exhibition interpretation. Accessed 2026-11-03.Published reference or historical record inspected; scope described.Return to Reading a name alongside an artwork, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-NAM-0147 · English edition · human review not performed