Devika

Devika is a Sanskrit diminutive of devi, goddess, a word whose tenderness is built into the grammar: little goddess, small divinity, the child as sacred in scale. It is also the name of a minor river in Jammu, making it both a name of address and a name of place. Three soft syllables, de-VEE-ka, the second vowel stretched and bright. Used across India for generations and carried by the mid-century Hindi film star Devika Rani into mainstream memory. Rare in English-speaking countries, it reads there as delicate without being fragile, classical without being stiff.