Glossary
Note on pronunciation: In romanized Indic-language names and italicized terms, short a is pronounced like the u in “but”; the other vowels have roughly the same values as in Spanish or Italian; 
and 
are pronounced like English sh; c is pronounced like English ch; and h after any other consonant simply adds extra breath, without changing the sound of the preceding consonant (thus, not ph as in “physics” or th as in “thin”). Other letters may be given their usual English values.
and are pronounced like English sh; c is pronounced like English ch; and h after any other consonant simply adds extra breath, without changing the sound of the preceding consonant (thus, not ph as in “physics” or th as in “thin”). Other letters may be given their usual English values.
E = English; H = Hindi (or related North Indian language); L = Latin; S = Sanskrit
Most Sanskrit terms can be used in Hindi (usually dropping final -a).
 cra |
(S) custom, practice; customary rule; local law
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| adhikra |
(S) competence, qualification; authorization; responsibility
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| rama |
(S) at first, a way of life (such as that of a married householder or ascetic); the M
nava Dharmastra canonized the ideal of four sequential ramas (hence, “life-stages”: student, householder, hermit, and homeless ascetic [yati; later, sa nysin]; see Olivelle 1993)
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| bhakti |
(S) devotion experienced as a direct personal contact or union with God; a largely vernacular devotional movement originating
in seventh-century South India
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| bhya |
(S) “commentary,” a prose text structured as a running explication or interpretation of a s
 tra or stra |
| communis error facit ius |
(L) “A common error makes law”
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| Dalit |
(E < H) “oppressed,” label often used to denote castes formerly known as “low caste” or “Untouchable,” and often adopted today by members of such castes
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da  a |
(S) “staff; royal scepter”; punishment, symbol of the king’s authority to punish the guilty
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| deadharma |
(S) law peculiar to a region
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| dharma |
(S) righteousness, duty, law; (H) religion
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dharmdhikrin, -kr |
(S, H) state-appointed official, properly an expert in Dharma
stra, concerned especially with the enforcement of pryacitta and caste penalties
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| dharmastra |
(S) canonical treatise on dharma; dharma literature in general (capitalized in this sense); compare
stra |
| dharmastrin, -str |
(S, H) expert in Dharma
stra
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| diaspora |
(E) the dispersal or spread of people of a common religion or ethnicity due to political or economic pressures, leading to
their long-term or permanent resettlement abroad; collectively, the people thus dispersed
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| divya |
(S) “divine” proof, i.e., oath or ordeal
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| diwani (dvn)
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(E < H) revenue collection under Islamic or colonial administration
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| jayapattra |
(S) document recording success in a legal suit
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| kacahr |
(H) court of law, cutchery
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| kvya |
(S) ornate courtly poetry in Sanskrit
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| laukika |
(S) “of this world; customary” (as opposed to “divine” or “sacred”)
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| lekha, lekhya |
(S) written document
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| manaut |
(H) pledge, votive petition
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| Mandal Commission |
a committee created in 1979, chaired by B. P. Mandal, to reassess government policies intended to benefit “backward classes,” i.e., those socially or economically disadvantaged because of their caste status
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| mantrin |
(S) minister, appointed high official of the state
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| mla |
(S) “root” or source (e.g., of dharma)
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| nibandha |
(S) topically organized digest of quotations from various sm
 tis
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| nyya |
(S) logic; legal reasoning; a judicial ruling (ny
ya-vda); by extension, “justice” in a legal proceeding
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| Other Backward Classes |
(E) category used in Article 340 of the Indian Constitution to designate a roster of castes other than the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and women as beneficiaries of reservations under Indian law; commonly abbreviated “OBCs”
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| pañcagavya |
(S) the five pure products of the cow: milk, curd, butter, urine, manure
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| pandit (paita)
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(E < S, H) learned man; expert in traditional learning
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| prama |
(S) criterion or means of correct knowledge; authoritativeness; proof
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| prmya |
(S) authority
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| pryacitta |
(S) penance, ritual expiation according to Brahmanical Hindu ritual and Dharma
stra
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| purohita |
(S) chief Brahmin priest of a king, responsible for performing his consecration and other rites of state
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| quod fieri non debuit factum valet |
(L) “What ought not to have been done is valid, once done”
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| rjadharma |
(S) the dharma of a king according to Dharma
stra
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| rjan |
(S) king
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| reservations |
(E) legally mandated quotas for lower castes and women in the public sphere, a form of compensatory discrimination or “affirmative action”
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| sabh |
(S) council of Brahmins constituted to make decisions or hear cases
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| sabhya |
(S) appointed member of a sabh
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| samaya |
(S) established convention, sometimes recorded in a document (pattra / patra / p
tra)
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| apatha |
(S) oath, an appeal to divine authority when used in court
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| sana |
(S) command, especially a written royal decree, grant, or ruling
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| stra |
(S) canonical treatise, composed mainly in verse, with any commentary thereon; field of scholastic expertise
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| strin / str |
(S/H) expert in
stra |
| sat |
(S) devoted wife who immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre; in British usage (“suttee”), the (ostensibly voluntary)
act itself
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| Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes |
(E) the categories used in Indian law to designate specifically enumerated castes and tribes to whom the policy of reservations applies; abbreviated SCs and STs
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| smti |
(S) “memory” of Vedic precepts as recorded in s
tras, dharmastras, and other Sanskrit works; often used as a synonym of “dharmastra”
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| ruti |
(S) the “audible” Vedic scriptures as preserved orally through rote memorization, held in M
ms and Dharmastra to have
the highest authority of all sources of knowledge (pramas); contrasted with smti, which is considered second to ruti in authority
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| stare decisis |
(L) “Stand by prior decisions”
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| sthiti |
(S) rule based on customary norms (
cra), sometimes recorded in a document (pattra / patra / ptra)
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| stra |
(S) code of rules composed in compressed, aphoristic style in Sanskrit, generally one of the older canonical texts of tradition; the dharmas
tras were the earliest works devoted to the rules of dharma |
| suttee |
see sat
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| svadharma |
(S) the dharma appropriate to oneself
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| twice migrants |
(E) members of the Hindu diaspora of one adopted country who relocate to another
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| vara |
(S) caste category in the fourfold hierarchy taught in Brahmanical doctrine: Brahmin, K
atriya, Vaiya,  dra
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| varramadharma |
(S) dharma defined in relation to caste (var
a) and stage of life (rama), a concept established in the Mnava Dharmastra |
| vijaya |
(S) victory, success in litigation, sometimes recorded in a document (pattra / patra / p
tra)
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| vyavahra |
(S) in general: social intercourse, commerce; in the Artha
stra: legally recognized transaction; in Dharmastra: lawsuit, legal procedure
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| vyavasth |
(S) ruling, decision, determination of a case by a pandit serving as law officer to a court, sometimes recorded in a document (pattra / patra / p
tra)
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