-13_Glossary of Sanskrit and Other Indian Terms.htm

GLOSSARY

OF SANSKRIT AND OTHER INDIAN TERMS

Note to the Glossary

Scope of the Glossary

Most Sanskrit and modern Indian words and phrases contained in the SRI AUROBINDO BIRTH CENTENARY LIBRARY are included in this glossary. Omissions are noted below:

1. Long passages which are translated or paraphrased where they occur and also words from these passages which are examined separately. For example:

a. Many passages from the Rig-veda cited and analysed in Volume 10, The Secret of the Veda. (All of these passages are included in Appendix 3, List of Vedic Translations and Citations.)

b. Phrases and words occurring in the essay "On Translating Kalidasa" (Volume 3, pages 236-49 and Volume 27, pages 84-108).

c. Certain long passages from the Gita, Upanishads, etc. (All of these passages are listed in the Appendix to the Glossary.)

2. Words occurring in poetical works and translations.

3. Philological examples, such as those given in "The Origins of Aryan Speech"

(Volume 10, pages 551-81 and Volume 27, pages 163-79) and elsewhere.

4. Many proper names, e.g. most names of historical personages, names of less important mythological figures, most titles of texts, etc.

5. Words and phrases printed in devanāgarī or Bengali script.

6. Adjectives and nouns which are formed from Sanskrit nouns but which are not themselves Sanskrit words, e.g. Pranic, Asurism.

Arrangement, Transliteration and Pronunciation

Words and phrases are listed alphabetically (English alphabet) letter-by-letter according to the standard internationally accepted system of transliteration. The scheme of this system is given on the following page.

The reader should note that many of the examples listed in the third column of the table give only an approximation of the Sanskrit sound, for example: r, r, and lr, which are independent vowels properly pronounced without the aid of any other vowel; the diphthongs e, ai, o, au; the cerebral nasal n; and v, which is never a fricative. Other examples could also be given. The pronunciation of Sanskrit is based on the quantitative, and not the accentual principle. Long and short vowels should be carefully distinguished.

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VOWELS

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In the works of Sri Aurobindo, words are transliterated not only according to this standard system, but according to a freer system, in which diacritical marks are omitted and a more natural English equivalent to the Sanskrit letter is employed. E.g. the word ^T, which is transliterated according to the standard system "śraddhā", according to the freer system is spelled "Shraddha". Sri Aurobindo preferred to use this freer system for most words of common occurrence.

In the glossary if a word spelled according to the freer system differs from the standard form in the letters used (disregarding diacritical marks), it is given after the standard form within parentheses. If there is no such difference (as in ānanda/Ananda), the standard form alone is listed.

In the Centenary Library, besides words transliterated according to these two systems, there are some Sanskrit words and names which are spelled in a quite unorthodox fashion. Most of these words are found in certain of Sri Aurobindo’s earlier writings. Examples are Opsara (apsara), poosta (postā). Although the editors of the Centenary Library have generally made all Indian words conform to one of the two regular systems of transliteration, some of these unorthodox spellings have been maintained in order to preserve the flavour of these earlier writings.

In the texts the plural has often been formed by adding the English s. In the Glossary this s is printed in roman type (e.g. Vasus) The proper Sanskrit plural is given in the devanāgarī spelling (e.g. = Vasavah).

There are no capital letters in the devanāgarī script, however in the Glossary transliterated proper names have been capitalised.

Definitions

As far as possible, definitions have been made using Sri Aurobindo’s own words. Where it was necessary for the compilers to provide all or part of a definition they have placed their work within square brackets.

The definitions given are meant to bring out the significance of words only as they are used by Sri Aurobindo and are not intended as full and complete meanings of the words.

Note that Sanskrit words used in the definitions are themselves defined in their own places.

Inflected Forms

Most Sanskrit nouns and adjectives are listed under their "crude" or uninflected forms. If inflected forms also occur they are placed under the uninflected form, e.g. hotā under hotr, ānandam under ānanda. Very brief (and therefore sometimes technically incomplete) grammatical descriptions of the inflected forms are given; these descriptions indicate only how the form, as used by Sri Aurobindo, differs from the crude form.

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Citations

The sources of most phrases cited by Sri Aurobindo (excluding those of common occurrence in Sanskrit texts) are given after the definitions within square brackets.

If the phrase as cited differs in some respect from the Sanskrit text, "cf." is put be- fore the citation.

If a word has been omitted from the phrase as cited, the omission is indicated by ellipsis points (…) in the devanāgarī spelling.

Abbreviations

Beng.	Bengali
Hind.	Hindi/Hindustani (in this glossary applied to words common to several modern Indian languages)
Ved.	Veda/vedic (Sanskrit words which are exclusively Vedic or of which the meanings given apply only to the words as used in the Veda)
RV	Rg-veda
Mānd.	Māndūkya Upanisad
Ait.	Aitareya Upanisad
Mund.	Mundaka Upanisad
Brhad.	Brhadāranyaka Upanisad
Svet.	Śvetāśvatara Upanisad
Chānd.	Chāndogya Upanisad
Tait.	Taittirīya Upanisad