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Glossary • Abhidhamma—the third of three major collections (pi†aka) of Buddhist texts in Pali; systematic classification and exposition of constituents or categories of existence; Buddhist cosmology. • Ådi Granth—primary Sikh scripture; literally “first book”; compiled by Gur¨ Arjan and expanded by later Sikh masters; after the death of the tenth master, it has the authority of a living master as Gur¨ Granth Såhib. • Ahiμså—nonviolence and nonattachment; more specifically avoidance of all harm or injury; put into practice most completely by Jaina mendicants, less radically by Buddhists and Hindus; a basic principle for social activists such as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. • Ahriman—the negative one of two powerfully opposed spirits created by Ahura Mazdå; Angra Mainyu, the destructive or evil twin counterpart to the holy Spenta Mainyu. • Akål Purakh—the Timeless One; Sikh designation for the immortal and ultimate divine being. • Allåh—Arabic term for the sole creator and ultimate being worshiped by Muslims. • Ambedkar—Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956); highly accomplished low-caste law expert, social and religious leader who led mass conversions to Buddhism, helped draft Constitution of India. • Amrit—drink of deathlessness; sweetened beverage prepared for initiates into Sikh ∞ålså. • Artha—one of four appropriate aims of Hindu life; material well-being; economic and political power. • Åryan—Indo-Åryan language speakers; early migrating tribes or settled residents of India; “noble” people who transmitted the Veda; also, nineteenth-century Vedic revivalists in the Årya Såmaj; in short, a richly evocative, important, and controversial term. • Åçrama—a series of four ideal stages of life for Hindus; also, a place of retreat or pilgrim rest-house (also called dharamçålå).
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• Åtman—indestructible core self in every form of life; affirmed by many Hindu theologies, denied by Buddhists who instead acknowledge pervasive impermanence (anattå). • Avatåra—“descent” and appearance of some form of the divine, typically at a time of crisis and in response to need; Vi‚~u is conventionally understood to have ten epochal or major ones. • Avesta—collection of authoritative Zoroastrian religious texts; when together with commentaries, is referred to as Zend-Avesta. • Avidyå—“Ignorance” is identified as a root cause of suffering and bondage in the Upani‚ads and in Buddhist tradition; Jaina tradition, however, identifies harmless action rather than knowledge or wisdom as the key to liberation from saμsåra. • Ba≥¿dåd⁄—West Asian Jewish traders who settled in urban areas in India and later migrated to Israel. • Baptism—Christian initiation and ritual cleansing by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion in water. • Bene Israel—Jews in India who were identified with the “lost tribes,” became economically successful in the colonial era, reincorporated traditional Judaic practices and emigrated to Israel. • Bhagavad G⁄tå—Hindu text in form of a dialogue between K®‚~a and Arjuna at the commencement of the Mahåbhårata War, reinterprets traditional concepts such as action, renunciation, sacrifice. • Bhakti—devotion to a divine being, whether loving service of a human person to a divine person (sagu~a bhakti) or identification with the divine as beyond all names and forms (nirgu~a bhakti). • Bhikkhu—Theravåda Buddhist male monk; follower of the precepts, guided by Saπgha rules. • Bible—in Judaic tradition the books of the Law (Torah, Pentateuch), Prophets, and Writings (Hagiographa); in Christian tradition those three (as Old Testament) and the New Testament. • Birådar⁄—the kinship group in traditional communities that manages and enforces proper social relations and marriage alliances; see Caste, Lineage. • Bodhisatta—Gotama in previous lives; someone who has advanced far enough along the path to embody wisdom and compassion that inspires service for the welfare of all living beings. • Brahman—ultimate reality beyond description (nirgu~a) and immanent in all (sagu~a); a key topic in the classical Upani‚ads and in Hindu Vedånta philosophy. • Bråhma~a—a set of commentaries on Veda; a human being with admirable qualities; a var~a in which adult males have traditional priestly functions.
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• Bricolage—disparate items at hand that are assembled or conjoined; improvisation and its results. • Buddha—a title given Gotama following his transformation at Bodh Gayå; the status or nature of an “awakened” or “realized” being. • Canon—a measure, standard, or criterion, thus an authoritative source or a scripture collection. • Caste—a term introduced in India by Portuguese traders; division of human society into hereditary status or functional groups; Vedic and classical Hindu fourfold model of society (var~a); social position and relationships (dining, marriage) as determined by birth (Jåti). • Caturvidhasaπgha—the “fourfold community” of Jainas that is comprised of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. • Christian—a person inspired by, devoted to, and attempting to follow the life and teachings of Jesus. • Christianity—institutional authorities and forms of Christian life; for example, Eastern (Orthodox), Western (Roman Catholic, Protestant), and many other short-lived and longterm variants. • Christmas—celebration of the birth of Jesus, annually observed on December 25th; along with Easter it is one of the two most widely observed Christian holidays. • Church—a place where Christians worship; an institution with rules of procedure, designated leaders with special titles and distinctive functions that vary from one Christian organization to another. • Cochin Jews—possibly the earliest Jewish arrivals on the subcontinent, they settled in Kerala (Malabar); after India’s Independence, most of them emigrated to other countries. • Constantine—Roman emperor (306–337 CE) who became a Christian, changed imperial policy to tolerance for Christians, and was a patron of early councils that established Christian doctrines. • Convert—to change religious affiliation and identity; to engage in missionary activity; to proselytize; these terms tend to be associated (positively or negatively) with Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims. • Council—a traditional Christian way of establishing institutional arrangements and settling doctrinal disagreements; an organizational structure for affiliating groups of churches with one another to share resources and activities, for example, National Council of Churches in India. • Creed—a formal statement of belief or of theological doctrine; important in Christianity. • Creole—a language (or, by extension, institution, tradition, culture) formed by mixing elements from separate and distinctive languages (institutions, traditions, cultures); see Bricolage, Transculturation.
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• Crucifixion—a torturous ancient Roman method of capital punishment by binding or nailing a person to a wooden crossbeam; death came slowly, painfully, and usually by suffocation. • Dalit—a term used by B.R. Ambedkar to refer to lowest caste groups that M.K. Gandhi called Harijan, and government institutions have referred to as depressed classes or scheduled castes; indigenous people beneath or beyond var~a classifications. • Dåna—the virtue of generous giving; a key ethical value in Dhårmic traditions. • Darçana—the six classical schools of Hindu philosophy; the vision or sight of a holy or divine being, and the benefits or positive effects that can result from the experience of an auspicious sight. • Deva—in Dhårmic traditions, a male divine being (the female counterpart is Dev⁄); in early Vedic religion Asuras were regarded to be dangerous superhuman beings opposed to Devas; Zoroastrian religion reverses the functions of these opposing divine categories, hence Ahura Mazdå. • Dharma—with its near equivalents dhamma and dharam, a central theme of the major indigenous traditions of India. • Digambara—the “sky clad” tradition of Jainas in which male ascetics live naked and without property. • Dukkha—life as unsatisfying and marked by suffering through experiences of birth, aging, illness, and death; the first noble truth of the Buddha. • Easter—one of two major Christian holiday festivals; the other (Christmas) celebrates the birth of Jesus while this one celebrates his resurrection or return from death to life after his crucifixion. • Endogamy—marriage limited to a restricted acceptable pool in which suitable prospective mates are determined by genetic, lineage, social, or cultural factors, for example, caste endogamy. • Eucharist—also known as the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion is a Christian sacrament, ordinance, or at minimum a customary practice in which a small portion of bread and wine (or juice) are served during worship as a reminder of the last supper of Jesus before his arrest and, in some Christian churches, as a mystical form of participation in his death and resurrection. • Five Ks—Pañj Kakår in Punjabi, five outward signs of being an initiated member of the Sikh ∞ålså. • Five Pillars—five observances undertaken by many Muslims: profession of faith, ritual prayers, almsgiving, daylight fasting during the month of Rama∂ån, pilgrimage to Makka. • Gandhi—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was trained as an attorney, became a leader of nonviolent civil disobedience movements in colonial South Africa
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and India, and encouraged interreligious harmony and respect for the most marginalized people in society. • Gåthås—seventeen hymns attributed to the authorship of Zarathustra that serve as the core of Zoroastrian liturgy. • Gender—a key determinant in whether a religious or social role should be prescribed, permitted, or prevented because of a person’s biological identity; gender is a salient defining factor in most traditional religious settings and, unlike modern contexts, is rarely open to challenge or change. • Gurdwårå—a Sikh place of worship; a copy of the Ådi Granth is installed and honored there; a free kitchen (laπgar) typically is located in close proximity, and ka®åh prasåd is distributed there. • Gurmat—the teachings that are central to a Sikh way of life. • Gurmukh—a faithful Sikh who internalizes and behaves in accord with Gurmat; contrasts with Manmukh, a self-centered person who is likely to fall prey to Haumai. • Guru—a teacher, expert, or master in any field, but with more profound meaning in a religious context; Sikhs acknowledge ten (and only ten) human masters; Hindu tradition acknowledges many. • Óad⁄th—traditional accounts of sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad; along with the Qur’ån, the various collections of them provide resources for Muslim law and guidance for right living. • Harappå—a village in Pakistan from which the name was taken to designate the early urban-based culture of northwest India that also is known as the Indus Valley Civilization . • Hasidic—an eighteenth century Eastern European Jewish spiritual movement that continues to be a vital influence in contemporary Judaism. • Haumai—a Sikh term that refers to the source of self-centeredness and of five evil impulses. • Hijra—the 622 CE migration of the Prophet Muªammad and his followers from Makka to Yaṯ¿rib (Mad⁄na) which serves as the starting point for the Muslim calendar. • Householder—in traditional India, a person who is living in society, marries, and raises children; the householder life contrasts with that of the Çrama~a or Bikkhu or some other type of renunciant who lives a solitarily wandering life or lives a life organized by rules of a monastic institution. • Hukam—divine command; to enter into harmony with the divine Order of things; it can refer to the popular Sikh practice of opening the Ådi Granth at random and reading there to receive guidance. • Hybridity—a term from postcolonial theory that evokes the plight or perspective of people “in between,” for instance, in between indigenous and colonial spheres of power; the
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notion of mixing diverse cultural or religious elements (see Bricolage, Creole) is further complicated by this term. • Incarnation—a key doctrine in Christianity that identifies Jesus as the divine being who uniquely becomes a human being (with or without loss of divine powers or identity); in Dhårmic traditions, by contrast, repeating cycles rather than a singular or unique circumstance are evoked by the term; in short, every incarnation is a reincarnation or a rebirth; nothing takes place only once; repetition is the rule. • Islam—the monotheistic ideal for human life that was transmitted through the final prophet, Muªammad, and to which Muslims aspire with support from traditional experts and institutions. • I‚†adevatå—a form of the divine that a Hindu devotee chooses for worship and life guidance. • Itihåsa—the category of received history and cosmology that is preserved primarily in the two great Hindu epics, the Mahåbhårata and the Råmåya~a. • Jesus—for Christians the unique savior of human souls; a Jew from Galilee who taught for a few years, healed people, challenged religious and political authorities, was arrested, tried, and put to death; some early followers believed he returned from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will come again to reward the righteous and judge the wicked. • Jina—“victor”; one who has “crossed over” and “passed beyond” the world of time and change; a T⁄rthaπkara; the ideal state that Jaina ascetics and others hope eventually to reach. • J⁄va—in Jaina tradition, the formless nonmaterial soul that undergoes modifications by association or attachment (karma) through long cycles of time in saμsåra but has potential for separation and release from all material entanglements and, like all Jinas, attain innate blissful freedom. • Kåla—time, duration, the fourth and last in the cycle of major ages or epochs; is closely associated with saμsåra, suffering, death, and the powers and beings that preside over them. • Kåma—longing, desire, sensory pleasures; also aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment; one of four chief goals in a well-balanced human life. • Karma—kamma in Pali language; activity, action, or work and the traces left and trajectory established by acts over multiple lifetimes; an important key concept in Dhårmic traditions. • ∞ålså—the Sikh initiate order founded by Gur¨ Gobind Siπgh in 1699; the nineteenthcentury Tat ∞ålså movement revived emphasis on separate and distinctive Sikh values rooted in the ∞ålså. • K⁄rtan—devotional singing, chanting, and recitation practices; see Bhakti.
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• Lama—a Tibetan teacher of Buddha Dhamma; some are considered reincarnate “advanced” beings. • Laπgar—a free community kitchen that welcomes all people; typically attached to a Sikh gurdwårå. • Lineage—continuity over generations by affiliation (guru-çi‚ya) or genetic inheritance through male (patrilineal) or female (matrilineal) descent. • Mahåbhårata—the world’s longest epic; a library of Hindu lore and values; see Bhagavad G⁄tå. • Mahåv⁄ra—the title given to the twenty-fourth T⁄rthaπkara who is honored by Jainas as the restorer, but not founder, of Jaina Dharma. • Mahåyåna—a branch of Buddhist tradition designated as the big or great vehicle; predominant in Central and East Asia; contrasts with the somewhat demeaning term H⁄nayåna (small vehicle). • Makka—commercial town in the Arabian Peninsula where first Muslims lived before relocating to Mad⁄na; see Hijra. • Mårga—a way, path, or road; by extension, a method or program for spiritual development that may center in right action (karma), devotion (bhakti), or discriminating insight (jñåna, bodhi). • Martyrdom—undeserved or extreme suffering and death are acknowledged in many religious traditions; martyrs feature prominently in Christian, Muslim, and Sikh religion; they exist but function rather differently due to enlarged assumptions about time and lives in Jaina, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions; modern Judaic tradition is exceptional due to recent horrors of the Holocaust. • Måyå—a term with multiple meanings; among them is power to generate beguiling appearances. • Missionary—a person sent to recruit new members of a religious community or the enterprise itself; conversion is closely identified with proselytizing religions such as Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim. • Mok‚a—escape, liberation, realization; freedom from suffering, death, rebirth; see Saμsåra. • Muªammad—for Muslims, the final prophet, messenger of Allåh who nevertheless remains human. • M¨rti—image or icon; may be a conventional and consecrated representation of divine presence that conforms to traditional standards and is ritually “awakened” for worship in home or temple. • Muslim—one who practices the religion of Islam; see Five Pillars, Muªammad, Qur’ån.
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• Nåm(a)—the divine name; repeating, singing, chanting it is a form of devotion in Dhårmic traditions; Sikhs call it remembering the name (nåm simara~); see K⁄rtan; some followers of jñåna-mårga and Buddha Dhamma engage in practices to surpass or transcend all distinctions of name and form. • Nånak—the first Sikh master, considered by some to be the “founder” of Sikhism. • Ordination—a ritual that “sets apart” or authorizes a religious vocation such as ministry, priesthood, monastic life, or other holy orders; there are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jaina, Judaic, and Zoroastrian examples; there is no Muslim ordained clergy, but law experts have an analogous status. • Orthodox—pure, true, straight, or correct belief; also, the so-called Eastern churches of Christianity. • Parsi—Persian immigrants to the subcontinent who retained their Zoroastrian religious practices. • Passover—Pesach; a major commemorative ritual in the Jewish religious year. • Pentateuch—a Greek term that refers to the Torah, the Law or the five books of Moses. • Pentecost—a Christian feast day observed fifty days after Easter that recalls the descent of the Holy Spirit into the early Christian community in Jerusalem during the Jewish Shavuoth; a type of Christian church (Pentecostal) that incorporates emotional expression and glossolalia into worship. • Pilgrimage—an almost universal religious phenomenon in which people singly or in groups visit sites specially associated with formative figures and events in their religious tradition. • P¨jå—reverence or honor offered to a divine being; typically formalized in a variety of liturgical patterns; may be called m¨rti p¨jå when directed to a consecrated image of a divine being; this is largely a post-Vedic Hindu practice that for the most part replaced Vedic yajña (sacrificial ritual), but the Årya Samåj movement in the nineteenth century reinstituted a vegetarian version of yajña. • Purå~as—ancient or old; a large category of Sanskrit texts that preserve Jaina and Hindu traditional information about deities, rituals, and cosmology; there are eighteen major Hindu ones and are generally consistent with Veda, and are sometimes called a fifth Veda, but considerably expand the range of Vedic concerns. • Purity—a nearly universal religious theme that is integral to rituals for passage through crisis and for development through the lifecycle; water, oil, and other scented materials may be used to ritually purify a person as part of an initiation, after a period or condition of bodily uncleanliness, or after close contact with a dangerous substance or the dead; techniques to retain one’s purity and avoid pollution vary from tradition to tradition and from one spiritual discipline or path to another.
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• Qur’ån—the Islamic book, written in poetic Arabic, said to have been transmitted in instalments by the angel Gabriel over twenty-two years to the Prophet Muªammad who was commanded to recite it, later it was organized into a standard version in which sections are arranged by length from shortest to longest; memorizing and reciting it are regarded as admirable spiritual accomplishments. • Rahit—rules or code of behavior to guide the life of a good Sikh; see Five Ks. • Råmak®‚~a—born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya (1836–86), he became a world-renowned Hindu mystic who inspired the formation of several teaching and service institutions that continue to offer education and healthcare today; his most widely known devotee was Svåm⁄ Vivekånanda. • Råmåya~a—the shorter but more beloved of the two great Hindu epics; provides inspiration to live an honorable Hindu life in which one respects and embodies one’s traditionally prescribed roles—whatever one’s age, gender, or current position in family or society, and whatever the temptations one may encounter. • Refuge—a follower of Buddha Dhamma, at a minimum one takes refuge in the so-called “three gems,” namely, the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saπgha. • Resurrection—in Christianity, the return of Jesus from the realm of the dead after crucifixion. • Rosh Hashana—the festival of the Jewish new year in the traditional lunar calendar. • Sacred Thread—the symbol of Vedic initiation given to males of the top three var~a during a ceremony that begins the student stage of life; see Saμskåra. • Saμhitå—the collection of mantras, prayers, and ritual prescriptions in the oldest core of the Veda, later augmented by commentaries and elaborations in the Bråhma~as, Åra~yakas, and Upani‚ads. • Sampradåya—a Hindu school of thought and practice that maintains continuity across generations of descent from master to succeeding master along with their body of pupils, devotees, and general following; it may put emphasis on a particular set of texts, commentaries, and rules of behavior. • Saμsåra—wandering in the ocean of existence; the world as determined by karma and rebirths. • Saμskåra—a mental or psychological imprint or deflection; a ritual of the lifecycle that mitigates or overcomes the effects of the first meaning of the word, enabling one to continue the transition to a new phase in life safely and effectively. • Saπgha—an assembly or association of monks; the Buddhist monastic order; by extension the term can be used to refer to all Buddhists. • Sevå—selfless service done without expectation of reward; Karma Yoga; a type of action that is integral to the values in Dhårmic religious traditions.
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• Shahåda—the testimony or profession of faith that is basic to being a religious Muslim; it affirms the unity and singularity of Allåh and the status of the Prophet Muªammad as his messenger. • Sh⁄ Ùa—the largest minority tradition in Islamic religion; distinguished from the majority by belief that the Prophet Muªammad designated a successor; includes further subdivisions that differ from one another by their allegiance to different lineages of succession after the Prophet; see Lineage. • Çiva—the multifaceted divine being who incorporates contrasting qualities and opposing energies; he is known by his Hindu devotees as Mahådeva (the great god); in some circumstances he displays the characteristics of an accomplished yog⁄, in others a householder or family man, and in yet others an epic hero who performs incredible feats. • Çrama~a—an ascetic; a mendicant; a spiritual seeker who lives an austere life; one who renounces the short-lived pleasures of the saμsåric world in order to seek mok‚a; contrasts with Householder. • Çruti—that which is heard; orally transmitted knowledge; the Veda and Vedic canon; contrasts with Sm®ti (that which is remembered) as embodied in commentaries and other authored texts that complement and expand on Çruti. • Sunn⁄—the majority tradition in Islamic religion; has generated schools of Islamic law that resolve questions about the behavior and activities that are permitted to Muslims based on the Qur’ån and examples from the life of the Prophet Muªammad. • Çvetåmbara—the “white clad” tradition of Jainas which split with the Digambaras in 80 CE and accord women the status of being capable of mok‚a or, as the Jinas, passing beyond saμsåra. • Syncretism—the aggregation, mixing, or blending of religious teachings or practices from different source traditions; see Bricolage, Creole, and Hybridity, Transculturation. • Talmud—learning or instruction; a lengthy commentary on Torah in more than six thousand pages that contains Rabbinic discussions, arguments, commentaries; a crucial source for Rabbinic Judaism. • Tantra—a set of Buddhist and Hindu texts that are non-Vedic, esoteric, and are most safely explored under direct guidance from a qualified living master; very important in Tibetan Buddhism. • Temple—a fixed structure that functions as a place for ritual activities; Vedic rites were conducted at temporary sites rather than in temples; post-Vedic Hindu tradition as well as the other traditions introduced in this book have constructed permanent buildings with designs suited to their functions and purposes, whether fire temples, gurdwårås, synagogues, churches, or mosques.
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• Theosophy—the generic meaning is study and wisdom concerning divine things; a Society founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky that became a significant religious and cultural influence in colonial India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Hindus, Parsis, and Buddhists. • Theravåda—the early form of Buddhist monasticism based on the Pali Canon, particularly important in Southeast Asia, that was deeply involved in the nineteenth-century Buddhist revival in India. • Thomas, Saint—identified by some with the “doubting” apostle, he is widely believed to have been the earliest Christian missionary to India. • T⁄rtha—a fording or crossing place; a sacred site for Jainas or Hindus; see Pilgrimage. • T⁄rthaπkara—a Jina who has forded or crossed over the ocean of existence and has gone beyond the grip of karma, rebirth, suffering, and attachments that determine the world of Saμsåra. • Torah—the scroll of the Law; the five books of Moses; the key portion of scripture in Judaic religion. • Transculturation—the meeting and convergence of previously separate cultures to produce a new mixture of cultural features, lifestyles, and values; a particularly important process in the formation of colonial, postcolonial, and globalized societies; see Bricolage, Creole, Hybridity. • Umma—the worldwide community of Muslims as equals, an ideal reinforced by observance of the Five Pillars and acceptance of the authority of the Qur’ån, ªad⁄th, and shar⁄Ùa. • Var~åçrama Dharma—the Hindu traditional ideal of society as organized by four main orders (var~a) of Bråhma~a, K‚atriya, Vaçiya, and Ǩdra as well as by four main phases of life: student, married householder, retired, and solitary world-renouncer. Veda wisdom or knowledge; for Hindus it refers to authorless, timeless, inspired teachings and prescriptions that serve as the basis for a ritually centered traditional society; Veda is preserved and transmitted in Sanskrit, recited by Bråhma~as, and is the main criterion of who is or is not Hindu. • Vi‚~u—a major Hindu deity who appears in several forms, including his avatåra manifestations of which the most widely popular are Råma and K®‚~a; see Råmåya~a, Bhagavad G⁄tå. • Vivekånanda, Svåm⁄—a Hindu monk, born Narendranath Datta (1863–1902), represented Hindu tradition at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago and became popular worldwide; see Råmak®‚~a. • Yajña—Vedic sacrificial ritual, largely succeeded in classical and later Hindu ritual life by p¨jå performed in homes and temples; see p¨jå, Temple.
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• Yom Kippur—a day of atonement; culmination of the “high holy days” following the traditional lunar new year during which repentance, prayer, and fasting replace worldly activities; see Rosh Hashana. • Zionist—one who supports the establishment and maintenance of a Jewish national homeland.
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