William Dalrymple - Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

Aarti Ceremonial waving of a lamp in front of an effigy of a god as an offering of light during a puja.

Agarbatti Incense sticks.

Ahimsa Non-violence, from the Sanskrit for do no harm.

Akhara A community or monastery of holy men (lit. wrestling arena).

Amavashya A night with no moon.

Aparigraha A Jain term meaning to limit possessions to what is necessary or important. A Jain monk does not have any possessions except a brush, a water pot and a robe.

Appam A hopper or South Indian rice pancake.

Apsaras The courtesans and dancing girls of the Hindu gods; heavenly dispensers of erotic bliss.

Artha The creation of wealth.

Ashram A place of religious retreat; hermitage.

Atta Flour.

Avatar An incarnation.

Azazeel Satan.

Babaji A respectful name for a sadhu.

Bakri A goat.

Bairagi A Vaishnavite ascetic.

Barat A procession bringing the groom to a wedding.

Baul A wandering Bengali minstrel, ascetic and holy man.

Barelvi Sunnis Muslims in South Asia who reject the more puritanical reformed Islam of the Wahhabis, Salafis and Deobandis and who embrace the popular Islam of the Sufi cult of saints. The name derives from Maulana Raza Khan of Bareilly, who espoused a liberal form of Sufi Islam.

Beedi A thin hand-rolled Indian cigarette wrapped in a leaf.

Bhajan A Hindu devotional song.

Bhakti Devotion, or the practice of focussing worship upon a much loved deity.

Bhang Marijuana.

Bhomiyas Rajasthani warrior martyr-heroes who die attempting to rescue stolen cattle and are sometimes later deified.

Bhopa A shaman, bard and singer of epics.

Chakra A sacred wheel or disc.

Charpoy A rope-strung bed on which the population of rural India spend much of their lives (lit. four feet).

Charvaka A system of Indian philosophy within Hinduism which rejected a transcendental deity and assumed various forms of philosophical scepticism and religious indifference while embracing the search for wealth and pleasure in this life.

Chaturmasa The four-month monsoon break, when Buddhist, Hindu and Jain ascetics cease their wanderings and gather in one place.

Chela A disciple or pupil.

Chelo Lets go!

Choli A short Indian bodice.

Chowkidar A guard or gatekeeper.

Chuba An ankle-length Tibetan coat.

Chu-zhi

Gang-drung Lit. Four Rivers, Six Ranges The Tibetan Resistance.

Crore Ten million (or 100 lakh).

Dacoit An outlaw; a member of a robber gang.

Dakini A Tantric deity, or attendant on a deity, embodying energy. Lit. (from the Sanskrit) sky dancer.

Dal A lentil dish; eaten with rice or chapattis, it is an Indian staple.

Dalits Lit. the oppressed. Below the base of the caste pyramid, formerly known as untouchables.

Danda A club.

Dargah A Sufi shrine, usually built over the grave of a saint.

Darshan A sighting, a glimpse, or view, especially of an idol of a deity in a temple, or of a holy or eminent personage.

Dastan An oral epic, story or history in North India and Central Asia, told by dastan-go performers.

Deccan The plateau covering most of central and southern India, framed on the north by the Vindhyas, and bounded on either side by the Eastern and Western Ghats.

Deobandis Sunni Muslims influenced by the reformed and somewhat puritanical form of Islam propagated by the madrasa at Deoband, north of Delhi. In Pakistan, many Deobandis have embraced an extreme form of Deobandism influenced by Saudi Wahhabi Islam.

Devi The great goddess. Synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine.

Devadasi Lit: Slave girls of the Gods temple dancers, prostitutes and courtesans who were given to the great Hindu temples, usually in infancy, by their parents.

Dhammal An ecstatic Sufi dance to the sound of drums.

Dharma Duty, religion, virtue.

Dhoti The traditional loin-wrap of Hindu males.

Digambara The Sky-Clad or naked Jains one of the two great sects of the Jain faith.

Diksha A ritual of initiation.

Doms Untouchable funeral attendants who man the pyres in cremation grounds.

Dosham Marital misfortune.

Dotara A small, two-stringed instrument resembling a guitar or lute and popular among the Bauls.

Dravidian A speaker of the South Indian Dravidian family of languages, often contrasted with the North Indian Indo-Aryan language group.

Dri Female yak.

Dupatta An over-the-shoulder scarf worn with a salwar-kameez.

Durree A rug or carpet.

Ektara A single-stringed instrument, popular among the Bauls.

Fakir Lit. poor. Sufi holy man, dervish or wandering Muslim ascetic.

Firangi A foreigner.

Gagra-choli A long skirt and blouse popular in northern India, especially rural Rajasthan.

Gali Abuse.

Ganja Marijuana.

Ghat Steps leading to a bathing place or river.

Ghazal A North Indian Urdu or Persian love lyric.

Ghee Clarified butter.

Gompa A Buddhist monastery.

Gunda A hired thug.

Gopi A milkmaid (in the Krishna myth).

Gopura A Ceremonial South Indian temple gateway, usually pyramidal in shape.

Gujar North Indian cattle-herding caste, once largely nomadic.

Gulab Jamun A sweet, syrupy rosewater-scented pudding.

Gungroo Dancers ankle-bells.

Harijan Lit. child of God. Untouchable.

Haveli A courtyard house or traditional mansion.

Henna A tropical shrub whose leaves are used as a red dye. Much in demand in the North-West Frontier for dyeing the beards of Pathan tribesmen.

Holi The Hindu spring festival; the occasion is normally celebrated by the throwing of coloured water and the consumption of a great deal of hashish and opium.

Homa A sacrificial fire or the practice of making offerings in a consecrated fire.

Hookah A waterpipe or hubble-bubble.

Ishq Love.

Jadoo Magic.

Jaggery Unrefined sugar.

Jatakas A body of tales and folklore that tell of the previous incarnations of the Buddha.

Jati A community or clan whose members are of the same caste or subcaste.

Jinas The liberators. Also known as Tirthankaras, or Ford-Makers, Jains believe these heroic ascetics have shown the way to Nirvana, making a spiritual ford through the rivers of suffering, and across the oceans of existence and rebirth, to create a crossing place between samsara the illusory physical world and liberation.

Jivan Life, spirit.

Jyot A lamp.

Kalimah The Islamic Credo (lit. the phrase). Affirmation of the Kalimah is the first of the five pillars of Islam. Belief in the meaning of the Kalimah is the primary distinguising feature of a Muslim. The phrase means in English There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His Messenger.

Kama Sexual desire.

Kar Sevak An RSS volunteer/activist.

Karma Fate or destiny.

Kathakali A Keralan dance drama.

Kavu A small, usually rural Hindu shrine in Kerala.

Khadi A home-spun cotton cloth, once associated with followers of Mahatma Gandhi, now the garb of politicians.

Khana Food, a meal.

Khepi A female Baul, the partner of a male Baul.