The reader of The Great Indian Novel is invited, upon each encounter with dharma in these pages, to assume that the term is used to mean any, or all, of the above.
Shashi Tharoor
Glossary
(All the words defined are from Sanskrit and/or Hindi, except where otherwise indicated) aarti — Hindu religious rite involving the ceremonial waving of lighted lamps before the object to be worshipped or honoured Angrez — Briton (colloquial) Arthashastra — classic political treatise ascribed to Chanakya (Kautilya), a Machiavellian statesman-philosopher of the fourth century B C ashram — the hermitage of a spiritual figure and a retreat for his disciples ayah — nanny babu — low-level functionary, clerk Bakr-Id — Muslim festival at which goats are sacrificed barfi — Indian sweet made of milk, often covered with edible silver foil (vark). bhai — brother chakra — wheel chakravarti — universal emperor chappals — slippers chaprassi — peon chela — pupil, acolyte dal bhaat — rice and lentils (i.e. the basic staple) darshan — inspiring vision or sight, used to refer to audience granted by king or holy man dharma — see note opposite dharna — act of political agitation or demonstration, usually involving the agitators sitting at the door of the authorities concerned until their demands are granted dharti — earth dhobi — washerman dhoti — ankle-length waistcloth, traditional male attire in most parts of India doodhwala — milkman durwan — guard, watchman gurudwara — Sikh temple Holi — Hindu spring festival marked by the splashing of coloured water janmabhoomi — motherland jawan — soldier — ji — suffix denoting respect karanavar — a Malayalam word meaning landlord, elder of a joint Kerala family karma — Hindu cycle of predestined birth and rebirth; destiny khadi — homespun Indian cotton kukri — Gurkha knife kundalini — vital force of cosmic energy embodied in everyone, and pictured as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine kurta — loose collarless shirt lathi — bamboo or wooden stave used by Indian policemen maidan — playing-field Mathrubhoomi Azhichapadippu — popular weekly journal in Kerala meghdoot — cloud messenger (from a classic poem by Kalidas in which a cloud is implored to convey tidings of a lost wife) MLA — Member of the Legislative Assembly (of a state, rather than the national Parliament in Delhi whose members are called MPs) mofussil — outlying, provincial, rural moksha — salvation mullah — Muslim priest mundu — South Indian dhoti (see above) namaskar, namaste — traditional Hindu greeting, usually with the palms joined Naxalites, Naxals — violent Maoist revolutionaries, particularly active in Bengal in 1967-71 neta — leader padayatra — long journey on foot, usually undertaken for social or political purposes through an area affected by calamity panchayat — village council pandal — temporary covered structure for outdoor receptions, ceremonies, etc. patideva — respectful term for husband patwari — village official puja — ritual players Puranas — ancient collections of popular Hindu myths and legends of religious and social significance razai — quilt rishi — holy man, sage sadhu — Hindu holy man sainik — soldier sannyasi — Hindu holy man, usually an ascetic satyagraha — literally ‘truth-force’, used by Mahatma Gandhi to define his non-violent agitation satyagrahi — one who undertakes satyagraha saunf — aniseed Shaitaan — Satan shama — songbird of the thrush family shamiana — large tent shastras — Hindu holy books, especially those laying down laws and precepts sherwani — traditional North Indian knee-length jacket Shri — Mr sloka — verse subedar — non-commissioned officer Sudra — member of the lowest Hindu caste swadeshi — indigenous, i.e. Indian swaraj — self-rule Swatantra Sena — (fictional) Independence Army swayamvara — ceremony in which a noblewoman chooses a husband from amongst assembled suitors tamasha — fun, spectacle twice-born — upper-caste Hindu, one who has undergone a ‘second birth’, i.e. a spiritual one; generally used to refer to Brahmins veda — one of four principal sacred texts of the Hindus — the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Artharva Veda — composed circa 15001200 BC and consisting of sacred Sanskrit hymns yuddha — war zamindar — landlord zenana — women’s quarters zilla — sub-district zindabad — long live
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Prof. P. Lal for permission to quote from his book, The Mahabharata of Vyasa.
My gratitude also goes to Tony Lacey, David Davidar and Julia Sutherland for their valuable editorial guidance; to my agent, Deborah Rogers, for her dedication and perseverance; to my brother-in-law, Dr Chandra Shekhar Mukherji, for his early and repeated encouragement as the work progressed; to my friends Deepa Menon, Margaret Kooijman, Ansar Hussain Khan and Arvind Subramanian, for volunteering to inflict the draft manuscript on themselves and for reading it with affection and insight; to my sisters, Shobha Srinivasan and Smita Menon, for their love, support and hospitality on two continents; to my wife, Tilottama, for bearing with me throughout the difficult evenings and weekends of my writing, and for trying (with only partial success) to get me to approach her own high critical standards; and to my parents, Chandran and Lily Tharoor, for teaching me to aspire, and for sustaining my faith in this book as they have sustained all my writing for so many years.