The words of Indian history

Sanskrit, architectural and historical terms used across this site, each in a sentence or two. On any page, tap a dotted word to see its meaning.

A

aarti आरात्रिक: The waving of lamps before the deity with song and bells, at dawn, noon and dusk in most temples, and on the ghats of the Ganga each evening.
abhang: A Marathi devotional song to Vitthala, the form of Namdev and Tukaram, sung by the Varkaris.
abhisheka अभिषेक: The ritual bathing of a murti or linga with water, milk, curd, honey and other offerings; also the anointing of a king at his coronation.
acharya आचार्य: A teacher who teaches by example and founds or heads a line of teaching, such as Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya.
Advaita अद्वैत: Non-duality: Adi Shankaracharya’s teaching that the Self and Brahman are one.
Agama आगम: The scriptures of temple worship, Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta, that lay down how temples are built, murtis consecrated and daily puja offered.
agnihotra अग्निहोत्र: The daily offering of milk into the household fire at sunrise and sunset, kept by Vedic householders all their lives.
agrahara अग्रहार: A village granted by a king to learned Brahmins, usually free of tax, so they could teach and keep the Vedic rites. Agraharas carried learning into the countryside.
ahimsa अहिंसा: Not harming any living being, in deed, word or thought; the first of Patanjali’s yamas and the heart of Jain conduct.
Ajivika आजीविक: An ascetic order of the Maurya age, founded by Makkhali Gosala, for whom Ashoka and Dasharatha cut the polished Barabar and Nagarjuni caves.
akhara: An order of sadhus, many of them trained in arms, with its own camp at the Kumbh. The akharas lead the great bathing processions.
akshauhini अक्षौहिणी: A full army division of the Mahabharata: 21,870 chariots, as many elephants, 65,610 horse and 1,09,350 foot. Eighteen fought at Kurukshetra.
Alvar: The twelve Tamil poet-saints of Vishnu, whose four thousand hymns Nathamuni gathered into the Divya Prabandham.
amalaka आमलक: The ribbed stone disc at the top of a Nagara shikhara, shaped like the amla fruit. The kalasha sits on it.
antarala अन्तराल: The short vestibule that joins the mandapa to the garbhagriha, the threshold between the hall and the sanctum.
apaurusheya अपौरुषेय: Not made by any person. Shastra holds that the Vedas have no human author; the rishis saw them, they did not compose them.
Aranyaka आरण्यक: The forest books of the Veda, studied in the forest, which turn from the outer rite to its inner meaning and lead to the Upanishads.
ardhamandapa अर्धमण्डप: The entrance porch of a temple, the half-hall through which one first steps in. It leads on to the larger halls and the shrine.
ashrama आश्रम: A stage of life: brahmacharya (student), grihastha (householder), vanaprastha (forest-dweller) and sannyasa (renunciant). Also a hermitage where a teacher lives with students.
Ashtapradhan अष्टप्रधान: Shivaji’s council of eight ministers, headed by the Peshwa, each with a Sanskrit title and charge of one branch of the state.
ashvamedha अश्वमेध: The horse sacrifice of a sovereign king. A consecrated horse roamed for a year under guard; any king who stopped it had to fight. Pushyamitra Shunga and Samudragupta performed it.
avatara अवतार: A descent: Bhagwan taking form in the world to restore dharma, as the Gita (4.7–8) declares. Vishnu’s ten avataras run from Matsya to Kalki.

B

bhajan भजन: A devotional song, sung alone or in a group, in the language of the home.
bhakti भक्ति: Loving devotion to Bhagwan. From the Alvars and Nayanars to Tulsidas, Meerabai and Tukaram, bhakti poets carried it into every language of Bharat.
bhashya भाष्य: A commentary on a sacred or learned text, such as Shankaracharya’s on the Brahma Sutras or Sayana’s on the four Vedas.
bhoga mandapa भोगमण्डप: The hall of an Odisha temple where food offerings are made to the deity before being shared as prasad.
Borphukan: The Ahom viceroy of lower Assam and commander in the west, with his seat at Guwahati. Lachit Borphukan held the office when he won at Saraighat in 1671.
Brahmana ब्राह्मण: The prose part of each Veda that explains the yajna, its rites and their meaning, such as the Shatapatha Brahmana. The word also names the priestly varna.
Brahmi ब्राह्मी: The script of Ashoka’s edicts, written left to right, the parent of nearly every script of South and Southeast Asia. James Prinsep deciphered it in 1837.
buranji: A chronicle of the Ahom kingdom, kept first in the Ahom language and later in Assamese, recording reigns and wars year by year.

C

chaitya चैत्य: A hall of worship, usually rock-cut, with a small stupa at the apsidal end and a horseshoe-shaped window over the entrance. The chaitya at Karle is the largest.
chakravartin चक्रवर्तिन्: A universal ruler, one whose chariot wheel rolls everywhere unopposed, the ideal of kingship in the Shastras and in Jain and Buddhist texts alike.
chaupai: A four-part verse of Hindi poetry; the Ramcharitmanas is told in runs of chaupais broken by dohas, two-line couplets.
chauth: A quarter of the land revenue, collected by the Marathas from territories outside their direct rule in return for protection.
Chhatrapati छत्रपति: Lord of the royal umbrella, the title Shivaji took at his coronation at Raigad on 6 June 1674, and the title of the Maratha kings after him.
chhatri छत्री: A domed pavilion on pillars. In Rajasthan and the Maratha lands chhatris were raised as memorials over the cremation places of kings and heroes.
copper plate ताम्रपत्र: A charter engraved on copper sheets, usually recording a king’s gift of land or a village. Thousands survive and are a main source for dates and dynasties.

D

dakshina दक्षिणा: The gift given to the priest or teacher at the close of a rite, without which the yajna is not complete.
darshan दर्शन: Seeing and being seen by the deity: standing before the murti in a temple, or before a saint, to receive blessing.
darshana (school) दर्शन: A school of philosophy that rests on the Veda. The six are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta.
deul देवालय: The Odia word for a temple or its tower. The rekha deul is the tall curved sanctum tower; the pidha deul is the stepped pyramidal roof of the hall in front.
Devanagari देवनागरी: The script of Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi, grown from Brahmi through the Nagari of the medieval north, with its line along the top.
dham धाम: An abode of the divine, a supreme place of pilgrimage. The Char Dham are Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram; Uttarakhand also has its own Chota Char Dham.
dhamma धर्म: The Prakrit form of dharma. Ashoka used it in his edicts for right conduct, and called his policy after Kalinga dhamma-vijaya, conquest by dharma.
dharma धर्म: That which upholds: the order of the cosmos and the right conduct of each being within it, duty, law and virtue together. The Shastras set it first of the four aims of life.
dharmashala धर्मशाला: A rest house for pilgrims, built as an act of charity near tirthas and on pilgrim roads, usually free or nearly so.
Dharmashastra धर्मशास्त्र: The texts on dharma, law and conduct, such as the Manu and Yajnavalkya Smritis and their commentaries.
dhvajastambha ध्वजस्तम्भ: The flagstaff standing before the main shrine of a temple, often clad in gilded metal. The festival flag is raised on it to open a temple’s annual utsava.
diksha दीक्षा: Initiation by a guru into a mantra, a sampradaya or a vow.
Diwani: The right to collect a province’s revenue. Shah Alam II granted the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha to the East India Company on 12 August 1765.
Doctrine of Lapse: Lord Dalhousie’s rule that a state whose ruler died without a natural son passed to the Company. Satara, Jhansi and Nagpur were taken under it.
Dravida द्राविड: The south Indian style of temple, with a stepped pyramidal vimana over the shrine and, in later centuries, towering gopurams at the gates. Thanjavur and Kanchi are Dravida temples.
Dvaita द्वैत: Duality: Madhvacharya’s teaching that Bhagwan Vishnu and the soul are eternally distinct, the soul his servant.

E

edict: A royal proclamation carved for the public to read. Ashoka’s fourteen Major Rock Edicts and his pillar edicts run from Kandahar to Karnataka.
Ekadashi एकादशी: The eleventh tithi of each paksha, kept as a fast day sacred to Bhagwan Vishnu.
epigraphy: The study and reading of inscriptions. India has an enormous number, and the epigraphy branch of the Archaeological Survey has copied tens of thousands.

F

farman: A written royal order of a Sultan or Mughal emperor, such as the grants that gave the East India Company its trading rights.

G

gana-sangha गणसङ्घ: A republic ruled by an assembly of clan heads rather than a single king, such as the Licchavis of Vaishali or the Shakyas of Kapilavastu.
garbhagriha गर्भगृह: The innermost shrine of a temple, literally the womb-chamber, where the main murti or linga is installed. It is small, dark and usually square, and the tower rises directly above it.
Gayatri गायत्री: The mantra of Rigveda 3.62.10, seen by Maharshi Vishvamitra, praying to Savitr to inspire the mind; recited at every sandhya. Gayatri is also the name of its metre.
ghat घट्ट: A flight of stone steps leading down into a river or tank, for bathing, worship and cremation. Kashi has more than eighty along the Ganga.
girmitiya: An indentured labourer, from agreement, the paper they signed. Over ten lakh Indians left as girmitiyas for Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname and Natal between 1834 and 1917.
gopuram गोपुर: The gateway tower of a south Indian temple enclosure, often far taller than the shrine itself and covered with painted figures. The Nayakas of Madurai built some of the greatest.
gotra गोत्र: A family line traced to a rishi ancestor, named in rites and taken into account in marriage.
granth ग्रन्थ: A book, especially a sacred one. For Sikhs the Guru Granth Sahib, compiled as the Adi Granth by Guru Arjan Dev in 1604.
Grantha script: The script developed in the Tamil country to write Sanskrit, used in Pallava and Chola inscriptions and for temple manuscripts.
grihya गृह्य: Of the home: the Grihya Sutras set out the household rites and the samskaras, from naming a child to marriage.
gurdwara: The door of the Guru, a Sikh place of worship where the Guru Granth Sahib is installed and the langar feeds all who come.
guru गुरु: A spiritual teacher, the one who removes darkness. For Sikhs the ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib.
gurukula गुरुकुल: The teacher’s household, where a student lived, served and memorised the Vedas for twelve years or more.

H

Hindavi Swarajya: Self-rule of the people of Hind, the name Shivaji gave to the state he built in the Sahyadri.

I

inscription अभिलेख: Writing cut into stone or metal, or painted on a wall, that records a gift, a reign or a victory. Inscriptions are the firmest evidence for dates and names in Indian history.
Itihasa इतिहास: Thus it happened: the Ramayana of Maharshi Valmiki and the Mahabharata of Maharshi Vyasa, the sacred history of Bharat.

J

jagamohana जगमोहन: The assembly hall in front of the sanctum in an Odisha temple, under a stepped pyramidal roof. At Konark the jagamohana is what still stands.
jagati जगती: The raised platform on which a temple stands. At Khajuraho and in Hoysala temples it is broad enough to serve as the path for walking round the shrine.
jagir: A grant of the revenue of a piece of land to an officer or noble in place of salary, under the Sultans, the Mughals and later states. Its holder was a jagirdar.
janapada जनपद: A territory settled by one people or clan, the early state of the Ganga plain. Many janapadas later grew into the sixteen mahajanapadas.
japa जप: Repeating a mantra or divine name, often counted on a mala of 108 beads.
jauhar: The self-immolation of the women of a besieged Rajput fort, rather than fall into the enemy’s hands, as the men rode out to fight to the death. Chittor saw it three times.
jizya: A poll tax levied on non-Muslims under Islamic rule. Akbar abolished it in 1564; Aurangzeb reimposed it in 1679.
jyotirlinga ज्योतिर्लिङ्ग: One of the twelve shrines where Bhagwan Shiva is worshipped as a pillar of light, from Somnath to Kedarnath, named in the Shiva Purana.
jyotisha ज्योतिष: The science of the lights: the Vedanga of astronomy and the calendar, from which grew Indian mathematical astronomy and astrology.

K

kalasha कलश: The pot-shaped finial on the very top of a temple tower, often of gilded copper; also the sacred water pot used in worship. Setting the kalasha marks a temple’s completion.
Kali Yuga कलियुग: The present age, which began at Shri Krishna’s departure in 3102 BCE by the traditional reckoning, and lasts 4,32,000 years.
kalpa कल्प: A day of Brahma, 1,000 Mahayugas long; we live in the Shveta Varaha Kalpa. Kalpa is also the Vedanga on ritual.
karma कर्म: Action, and the law that every action bears its fruit, in this life or a later one. The Gita teaches action done as duty, without attachment to its fruit.
karshapana कार्षापण: The silver punch-marked coin of early Bharat, stamped with symbols such as the sun, the six-armed wheel and animals. It was the money of the mahajanapadas and the Mauryas.
kavya काव्य: Court poetry in Sanskrit and other tongues. A mahakavya is a long poem in cantos, such as Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsha.
Khalsa: The order of initiated Sikhs created by Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur on Vaisakhi 1699.
Kharoshthi खरोष्ठी: A script of the northwest, written right to left, used in Gandhara for Ashoka’s edicts at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra and on Indo-Greek and Kushana coins.
kirtan कीर्तन: Singing the names and glories of Bhagwan together, often call and response, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did in Bengal and Puri.
kirtimukha कीर्तिमुख: The carved face of glory, a fierce lion-like mask set above temple doorways and on towers. The Skanda Purana tells how Shiva named it and placed it at his threshold.
kriti कृति: A composed song of Carnatic music, perfected by Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.
kshetra क्षेत्र: A sacred region around a great temple or tirtha, such as Kurukshetra, Kashi Kshetra or Puri’s Purushottama Kshetra.
kudavolai: The Chola method of choosing village councillors by writing names on palm leaves and drawing them from a pot, laid down in the Uttaramerur inscriptions of 919 and 921.
Kumbh कुम्भ: The great bathing festival held in turn at Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, where by the Puranic katha drops of amrita fell. UNESCO listed it in 2017.
kund कुण्ड: A sacred tank or pool, usually stepped on all sides, beside a temple or at a tirtha, for bathing before worship. Modhera’s Surya Kund is one.

L

linga लिङ्ग: The sign of the formless Shiva, recalling the infinite pillar of light of the Lingodbhava katha. The pitha on which it rests is Shakti.

M

mahajanapada महाजनपद: One of the sixteen great states of the age of the Buddha and Mahavira, named in the Anguttara Nikaya, from Kashi and Kosala to Gandhara and Kamboja. Magadha absorbed the rest.
mahamandapa महामण्डप: The great hall of a temple, the largest of its mandapas, where devotees gather before the shrine.
mahant: The head of a matha, akhara or temple establishment.
maharajadhiraja महाराजाधिराज: Great king of kings, the title of a paramount ruler. Chandragupta I of the Guptas took it in 320 CE.
mahavihara महाविहार: A great monastery that was also a university, such as Nalanda, Vikramashila or Somapura, with thousands of students and teachers.
mandala मण्डल: A circle; one of the ten books of the Rigveda, several of which belong to single rishi families. In south Indian inscriptions a mandalam is a province.
mandapa मण्डप: A pillared hall in front of or around a temple shrine, used for gathering, music, dance and rituals. Large temples have several, each with its own purpose.
mansabdar: A holder of rank in the Mughal service. The mansab fixed his pay and the number of horsemen he had to keep.
mantra मन्त्र: A sacred sound, word or verse, above all from the Veda, recited with exact sound in worship and meditation. The Gayatri is the best known.
manvantara मन्वन्तर: The reign of one Manu, fourteen to a kalpa. The present is the seventh, of Vaivasvata Manu.
matha मठ: A monastic seat of a sampradaya, headed by an acharya, that teaches, feeds and keeps the tradition. Adi Shankaracharya founded four, at Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri and Jyotirmath.
mela: A fair or festival gathering, often at a tirtha on a sacred day.
misl: One of the Sikh confederacies of the 18th century, each led by its own sardar. Ranjit Singh united them into the Sikh empire.
moksha मोक्ष: Liberation from the cycle of birth and death, the highest of the four aims of life.
muhurta मुहूर्त: A unit of 48 minutes, thirty to a day; also the auspicious moment chosen for a rite, such as brahma muhurta before dawn.
murti मूर्ति: The consecrated form of a deity in stone, metal or wood, in which Bhagwan is worshipped as present once prana pratishtha has been performed.

N

Nagara नागर: The north Indian style of temple, marked by a curved shikhara crowned with an amalaka and kalasha. Khajuraho and Modhera are Nagara temples.
nakshatra नक्षत्र: One of the twenty-seven lunar mansions, star-groups through which the moon passes, used for naming, muhurtas and festivals.
nata mandira नाट्यमन्दिर: The dance hall of an Odisha temple, where temple dance and music were offered to the deity.
Nayaka नायक: A military governor under Vijayanagara. After 1565 the Nayakas of Madurai, Thanjavur, Gingee and Keladi ruled as kings and raised great gopurams and halls.
Nayanar: The sixty-three Tamil saints of Shiva, whose lives Sekkizhar told in the Periya Puranam; Appar and Sambandar’s hymns form the Tevaram.
nigama निगम: A corporation or town body of merchants. Clay seals of a nigama of bankers, traders and craftsmen were found at Vaishali.
numismatics: The study of coins. Coins give kings’ names, titles, faiths and dates where no other record survives, as for the Indo-Greeks and the Kushanas.

P

paksha पक्ष: A fortnight of the lunar month: shukla paksha, the bright half ending at purnima (full moon), and krishna paksha, the dark half ending at amavasya (new moon).
panchang पञ्चाङ्ग: The Hindu almanac of five limbs: tithi, vara (weekday), nakshatra, yoga and karana, consulted for every festival and rite.
Pancharatra पाञ्चरात्र: A Vaishnava Agama tradition that governs worship in many Vishnu temples, Srirangam among them.
parikrama परिक्रमा: A circuit walked around a temple, a sacred hill, a town or a river as worship, such as the parikrama of Govardhan or of the Narmada.
pathashala पाठशाला: A school, especially a traditional school for Vedic chanting and Sanskrit, such as those of Kashi.
Peshwa: The chief minister of the Maratha state. From Balaji Vishwanath in 1713 the Peshwas of Pune held real power in the Chhatrapati’s name until 1818.
polygar: A local chief of the Tamil country holding a fort and lands under the Nayakas. Polygars such as Kattabomman fought the East India Company around 1800.
pradakshina प्रदक्षिणा: Walking round a shrine, murti or sacred fire clockwise, keeping it to one’s right, as an act of worship. Temples have a passage built for it.
prakara प्राकार: A walled enclosure around a temple. Great south Indian temples such as Srirangam have several prakaras, one inside another, each with its own gopurams.
pran pratishtha प्राणप्रतिष्ठा: The rite that installs life in a murti, after which it is worshipped as the living deity. Ram Lalla’s was performed at Ayodhya on 22 January 2024.
prasad प्रसाद: Grace: food or flowers first offered to the deity and then shared among devotees as a blessing.
prashasti प्रशस्ति: A eulogy of a king carved in stone or on copper, recording his lineage and deeds. Harishena’s praise of Samudragupta on the Allahabad pillar is the best known.
puja पूजा: Worship of a deity with offerings of water, flowers, incense, lamp and food, at home or in a temple.
Purana पुराण: The ancient accounts: eighteen great Puranas and many lesser ones, by Maharshi Vyasa, telling of creation, the avataras, royal lines and tirthas.
pushkarini पुष्करिणी: The sacred temple tank of a south Indian temple, used for bathing and for the float festival of the deity.

Q

qiladar: The commander of a fort. In Shivaji’s state each hill fort had its own commander, with civil officers beside him for its stores and accounts.

R

rajasuya राजसूय: The royal consecration sacrifice by which a king was proclaimed overlord. Yudhishthira performed it at Indraprastha in the Mahabharata.
Rath Yatra रथयात्रा: The chariot festival in which the deity is drawn through the streets by devotees. The best known is Shri Jagannath’s at Puri in the month of Ashadha.
ratha रथ: A chariot. In temples it means the great wooden car that carries the deity through the streets at festivals; at Mamallapuram it names the five shrines cut from single boulders.
rishi ऋषि: A seer to whom the Vedic mantras were revealed, mantra-drashta. The seven great rishis, the Saptarshi, include Vasishtha, Vishvamitra and Bharadvaja.
rta ऋत: The cosmic order of the Rigveda, by which the sun rises, the seasons turn and the yajna bears fruit. It is the root of the later idea of dharma.

S

sabha सभा: An assembly. In the Vedas the sabha and samiti were councils of the people; in Chola inscriptions the sabha is the elected assembly of a Brahmin village, as at Uttaramerur.
sallekhana सल्लेखना: The Jain vow of a peaceful death by gradually giving up food, taken at the end of life. Jain tradition says Chandragupta Maurya ended his life so at Shravanabelagola.
samanta सामन्त: A subordinate ruler or vassal chief who held land under an overlord, paid tribute and brought troops in war. Many samantas rose to found dynasties of their own.
Samhita संहिता: A collection; above all, the mantra portion of each Veda, such as the Rigveda Samhita of 1,028 suktas.
samiti समिति: In the Vedas, the general assembly of the people, which the Atharvaveda calls, with the sabha, the two daughters of Prajapati.
sampradaya सम्प्रदाय: A living line of teaching handed from guru to disciple, with its own texts, worship and acharyas, such as the Shri Vaishnava or the Varkari sampradaya.
samskara संस्कार: A rite that marks and sanctifies a stage of life. The Grihya Sutras list them from conception and namakarana through upanayana and vivaha to the last rites.
sandhya सन्ध्या: The junctions of the day, dawn, noon and dusk, and the daily worship offered at them with water and the Gayatri mantra.
Sankranti संक्रान्ति: The sun’s passage into a new sign of the zodiac. Makar Sankranti in January is kept with bathing, gifts and harvest festivals across Bharat.
sannyasa संन्यास: Renunciation, the fourth ashrama, in which one gives up home and possessions for the search for moksha. One who takes it is a sannyasi.
saptapadi सप्तपदी: The seven steps the bride and groom take together around the sacred fire, the rite that completes a Hindu marriage.
sardeshmukhi: An extra tenth of the revenue claimed by the Maratha king as hereditary head deshmukh of the land. Balaji Vishwanath won imperial grants for it and chauth in 1719.
satra (Assam): In Assam, a Vaishnava monastery founded in the tradition of Srimanta Sankardev, the centre of village worship, music and dance.
satyagraha सत्याग्रह: Holding firmly to truth: Gandhi’s method of non-violent resistance by open disobedience and willing suffering, as at Champaran, Vaikom and Dandi.
senapati सेनापति: Commander of the army. Pushyamitra Shunga kept the title senapati even after he ruled.
sepoy: An Indian soldier in the armies of the East India Company, from the Persian sipahi. The sepoys of Meerut began the war of 1857.
Shaka era शकसंवत्: The era that begins in 78 CE, used by astronomers and almanacs for nearly two thousand years and adopted as India’s national calendar in 1957.
Shakti Peetha शक्तिपीठ: A seat of the Devi, where by the Puranic katha a part of Mata Sati’s body fell. Kamakhya, Kalighat and Hinglaj are among them.
Sharada script शारदा: The script of Kashmir, in which its Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions were written for centuries.
shikhara शिखर: The tower over the garbhagriha of a north Indian (Nagara) temple, usually curved and rising to a crown. In the south the tower is called the vimana.
shloka श्लोक: A verse, especially the two-line anushtubh metre of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Gita. The Ramayana counts 24,000.
shramana श्रमण: A wandering ascetic of the Jain, Buddhist or Ajivika orders. Ashoka’s edicts ask for gifts to Brahmanas and shramanas alike.
shrauta श्रौत: The great public yajnas laid down in the Shrauta Sutras, performed by several priests with three fires and altars built to exact measure.
shreni श्रेणी: A guild of merchants or craftsmen with its own head and rules. Shrenis also acted as banks, taking deposits for temples and monasteries.
shruti श्रुति: That which is heard: the Vedas, including the Upanishads, revealed to the rishis and handed down by recitation. Shruti is the highest authority in dharma.
smriti स्मृति: That which is remembered: texts that rest on the Vedas, such as the Dharmashastras, the Itihasas and the Puranas. Where smriti and shruti differ, shruti prevails.
sthala purana स्थलपुराण: The sacred account of a particular temple or tirtha: how the deity appeared there and why the place is holy. Many are found in the Skanda Purana as mahatmyas.
stupa स्तूप: A solid domed mound built over relics of the Buddha or a revered teacher, walked round in worship. Sanchi, Bharhut and Amaravati are famous stupas.
subahdar: The governor of a subah, a province of the Mughal empire. Under the Marathas and later the British army, subedar also became a military rank.
sukta सूक्त: A hymn of the Veda. Each sukta carries the name of its rishi, its devata and its metre; the Rigveda has 1,028.
Sultanate: A state ruled by a sultan. The Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) was ruled in turn by five houses; the Deccan had its own sultanates after 1347.
sutra सूत्र: A thread: a short, packed rule meant to be memorised, and a text built of such rules, such as Panini’s Ashtadhyayi or the Brahma Sutras.
Swadeshi स्वदेशी: Of one’s own country: the movement after the partition of Bengal in 1905 to boycott foreign goods and make and buy Indian ones.
Swaraj स्वराज्य: Self-rule. Tilak declared it a birthright; in 1930 the Congress made Purna Swaraj, complete independence, its goal.

T

tapas तपस्: Heat; austerity and disciplined effort that burns away impurity, the practice of rishis in the forest.
tirtha तीर्थ: A ford, and so a holy place where crossing the river of samsara is easier: a river bank, temple town or mountain where pilgrims go to bathe and worship.
Tirthankara तीर्थङ्कर: A ford-maker: one of the twenty-four Jain teachers, the Jinas, who crossed the river of rebirth and showed the way. Rishabhadeva was the first and Mahavira the twenty-fourth.
tithi तिथि: A lunar day, the time the moon takes to gain twelve degrees on the sun. Thirty tithis make a lunar month, and festivals fall by tithi.
torana तोरण: A carved ceremonial gateway, two posts with crossbars or an arch, as at the stupa of Sanchi or before many temples of Gujarat and Odisha.

U

upanayana उपनयन: The sacred thread ceremony, when a child is taken to the guru, receives the Gayatri mantra and begins Vedic study.
Upanishad उपनिषद्: The closing teachings of the Veda, Vedanta, on Brahman and the Self, given by teacher to pupil sitting close. The Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya are the oldest and largest.
utsava murti उत्सवमूर्ति: The festival image of a deity, usually of metal, carried out in procession while the main murti stays in the sanctum.
Uttarayana उत्तरायण: The sun’s northward course, the auspicious half of the year. Bhishma waited on his bed of arrows for it to begin before leaving his body.

V

vachana: A short Kannada prose-poem of devotion to Shiva, the form of Basavanna and the Sharanas of 12th-century Kalyana.
vahana वाहन: The mount of a deity: Nandi for Shiva, Garuda for Vishnu, the lion for Durga, the peacock for Kartikeya. Images of the vahana face the shrine.
Varkari: The pilgrims of Vitthala of Pandharpur, who walk there each Ashadhi Ekadashi singing the abhangas of Jnaneshwar, Namdev and Tukaram.
varna वर्ण: The fourfold order of society, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, which the Gita (4.13) says Bhagwan created by guna and karma.
vav वापी: A stepwell: a well reached by long flights of steps and storeys of carved pillars, built to hold water through the dry months. Rani ki Vav at Patan is the best known.
Veda वेद: Knowledge: the four apaurusheya scriptures, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva, heard by the rishis and arranged into four by Maharshi Vyasa. Each has Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishad.
Vedanga वेदाङ्ग: The six limbs that protect the Veda: shiksha (pronunciation), kalpa (ritual), vyakarana (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chhandas (metre) and jyotisha (the calendar of the stars).
Vedanta वेदान्त: The end of the Veda: the teaching of the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Gita on Brahman and the Self, explained in different ways by Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita.
Vesara वेसर: The temple style of the Deccan that blends Nagara and Dravida features, seen in Chalukya and Hoysala temples.
vihara विहार: A monastery where Buddhist or Jain monks lived, with cells round a central court. The state of Bihar takes its name from its many viharas.
Vikram Samvat विक्रमसंवत्: The era counted from 57 BCE, still used across north and west India for festivals and dating. Add 57 to a CE year to get the Samvat year, roughly.
vimana विमान: In south Indian (Dravida) temples, the tower over the sanctum, built in stepped storeys and topped by a dome-like stone. The vimana of the Brihadeeswara at Thanjavur rises 66 metres.
Vishishtadvaita विशिष्टाद्वैत: Qualified non-duality: Ramanujacharya’s teaching that souls and the world are real and form the body of Bhagwan Narayana.

Y

yajna यज्ञ: Offering into the sacred fire with Vedic mantras, the central rite of the Veda. A homa or havan is a smaller fire offering made at home or in a temple.
yaksha यक्ष: A guardian spirit of wealth, trees and waters, honoured with large standing figures in the Maurya age, such as the Didarganj Yakshi.
yatra यात्रा: Going on the road, above all a pilgrimage to a tirtha, or a festival procession of a deity.
yuga युग: An age of the world. Four yugas, Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali, make one Mahayuga of 43,20,000 years.

Z

zamindar: A landholder who collected revenue from cultivators. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 made the Bengal zamindar the Company’s collector at a fixed demand.