The Great Indian Novel (66 page)

A Note on Dharma

O
f the many Indian words and expressions in this book, the meanings of most of which are readily apparent from their context (or from the glossary), the one term it may be necessary to elucidate is
‘dharma’.

Dharma is perhaps unique in being an untranslatable Sanskrit term that is, none the less, cheerfully defined as a normal, unitalicized entry in an English dictionary. The definition offered in
Chambers
Twentieth-Century
Dictionary
is ‘the righteousness that underlies the law; the law’. While this is a definite improvement on the one-word translation offered in many an Indian Sanskrit primer (‘religion’), it still does not convey the full range of meaning implicit in the term. ‘English has no equivalent for dharma,’ writes P. Lal in the Glossary to his ‘transcreation’ of the
Mahabharata,
in which he defines dharma as ‘code of good conduct, pattern of noble living, religious rules and observance’.

My friend Ansar Hussain Khan suggests that
dharma
is most simply defined as ‘that by which we live’. Yes - but ‘that’ embraces a great deal. An idea of the immensity and complexity of the concept of dharma may be conveyed by the fact that, in his superb analytical study of Indian culture and society,
The
Speaking
Tree,
Richard Lannoy defines dharma in at least nine different ways depending on the context in which he uses the term. The nine (with page references to the Oxford University Press paperback edition in brackets): Moral Law (xvi), spiritual order (142), sacred law (160), salvation ethic (213), totality of social, ethical and spiritual harmony (217), righteousness (218, 325), universal order (229), magico-religious cycle (233), moral, idealistic, spiritual force (294). Lannoy also quotes Betty Heimann’s excellent version in her 1937 work
Indian
and
Western
Philosophy:
A
Study
in
Contrasts:
‘Dharma is total cosmic responsibility, including God’s, a universal justice far more inclusive, wider and profounder than any Western equivalent, such as “duty”.’

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.