Sthala-Purana
Vernacular South Indian texts or oral traditions telling the traditional stories of particular localities, villages, and temples. Rao describes Kanthapura as a sthala-purana, which he defines as a “legendary history.”
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Dhoti
A kind of knee-length, cloth pant traditionally worn by Hindu men. In the 1920s, Gandhi decided to start wearing dhoti instead of Western clothing in order to identify himself with the Indian poor.
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Khadi
Refers to hand-woven Indian cloth. Gandhi encouraged his supporters to wear khadi and boycott British-made cloth.
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Caste
A traditional Hindu system of social stratification that traditionally divides people into separate communities of brahmins (priests and teachers), kshatriyas (governors, administrators, and warriors), vaishyas (merchants, artists, and farmers), and shudras (manual laborers). The different…
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Brahmin
The traditionally highest and most powerful caste, composed of priests and teachers.
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Shudra
A low caste of manual laborers. Also called sudra.
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Pariah / Outcaste
People who live beneath the caste system and are therefore considered unworthy of interaction with people from other castes.
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Untouchables
A more common and non-regionally specific term for outcastes like Kanthapura’s pariahs.
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Linga
A small idol that abstractly represents the Hindu god Siva.
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Sankara-jayanthi
A prayer ritual for Adi Shankara, the eighth century philosopher who is credited with standardizing Hindu scriptures and first conceiving India as a unified territory.
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Sankara-Vijayas
Important biographies of Adi Shankara.
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Bhajan
Refers to any song performance with religious themes.
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Harikatha
A South Indian genre of storytelling with religious themes that combines poetry, philosophy, song, dance and theatre. Sastri usually gives harikathas in Kanthapura, and Moorthy pays Jayaramchar to give a harikatha about Gandhi in the…
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Pandit
A Hindu religious leader.
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Red-men
A colloquial term for British colonists.
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Coolies
A term for indentured servants, generally in British colonies but especially from India, who worked on plantations. Although they were not technically slaves, after the abolition of slavery their labor largely replaced slave labor. Planters…
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Maharaja
An originally Sanskrit word for a great ruler or king. Over time, it became a relatively common title denoting honor.
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Lathi
A police baton.
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Gayathri Mantra
An important Sanskrit chant from the Rig Veda, which many Hindus and some Buddhists recite during daily prayers.
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Hari
An important Hindu term with various meanings in different contexts and languages. It often refers to the god Vishnu and the notion of absolute, unified being. As a child, Moorthy once felt he saw Hari…
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Panchayat
A five-person village council traditionally composed of village elders. Gandhi wanted India to be governed based on a decentralized system of panchayats, which the Kanthapura villagers’ Congress exemplifies.
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Kartik
Refers to the seventh month of the Hindu calendar, as well as the holy festival of lights held on the fifteenth day of that month.
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Dharma
An important term in Indian religions with various contextual meanings that generally refers to proper religious practice, or acting in accordance with the flow of the universe.
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Dharma Sastras
A collection of numerous ancient Hindu texts about dharma, written in Sanskrit.
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Mohomedan
Archaic term for Muslims, now broadly considered offensive.
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Satyagraha
The Gandhian practice of nonviolent resistance. It literally translates as “holding onto truth” and its practitioners are called satyagrahis.
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Swaraj
Literally “self-rule,” swaraj refers to the concept of Indian independence from foreign government.
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Patel
A village chief and large landholder.
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Krishna
The Hindu god of love and compassion.
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Siva
One of the most important Hindu gods, Siva (or Shiva) is the destroyer, responsible for death and transformation. Whereas many gods are only worshipped in particular areas, Siva is worshipped across India.
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Rani Lakshmi Bai
A North Indian queen who was a central leader of the 1857 Indian Rebellion. She is a source of inspiration for the Gandhian Volunteer women.
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Toddy
Also known as palm wine, an alcoholic beverage made from the sap of toddy palm trees.
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