xvBecause the spelling of Hindu terms today relies
upon transliteration from several different languages
from different language groups, perfect consistency
in English spellings is not possible. Moreover, alter-
nate spellings of Hindu terms and names are in com-
mon use throughout the English-speaking world.
We have chosen in most cases to cite the aca-
demically accepted and/or current spellings, even
though these spellings may not be the same as com-
mon usage and/or historical usage. For example, the
name of one wife of Shiva, the goddess Minakshi,
is popularly rendered Meenakski, while scholars
predominantly favor the former spelling. Also, a
number of variations appear over time in the names
of cities, so that Banaras is now commonly spelled
Benares. Similarly, the honorific Sri is also spelled
Shri, Shrii, and Shree. When proper names such as
these appear in published volumes in bibliographi-
cal citations in this volume, the spelling follows
the Library of Congress listing exclusively. Con-
sequently, there often appear differences between
spellings of names in text entries and spellings in
the further reading associated with those entries.Another point of possible confusion is current
alternate spellings of Hindu terms such as san-
nyasi and sannyasin (meaning renunciant), which
are synonymous. A closely related term, sannyas,
is the vow that sannyasis or sannyasins take to
enter into their lives of austerity.
In the last 20 years, the names of several
important cities in India have been changed to
their historical pre-British names. In this work,
names of cities are generally left in the form
found in the scholarly literature of the period. In
most instances present-day changes are indicated
in the text, such as Madras (Chennai), Bombay
(Mumbai), Benares (Varanasi), and Calcutta
(Kolkata).
Due to the dissemination of Hindu ideas in
the West, many terms have become part of the
English language and are not italicized to indi-
cate that they are foreign words. For example,
atman, bhakti, karma, maya, mudra, nirvana,
and various types of yoga (such as hatha,
jnana, ashtanga, and siddha yoga) are treated as
En glish words.note on
terms and spelling
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