Glossary

Aditya - the sun
Amavasya - 15th day of the dark fortnight
Arda - half 
Ashvin - seventh month in the lunar calendar
Azadi - freedom
Batta - Kashmiri Hindu, also called Kashmiri Pandit, (acronym KP)
Batten - Pandit female
Bhajan - devotional song
Cordon-and-search - an operation to flush out the terrorists in which the security forces throw a cordon around an area and seal exit routes before the search
Darshana - to manifest
Dale Batta - derogatory epithet for a KP - an euphemism for a coward and a weakling
Georges - name of a hurricane
Ghazi - a Muslim fighter against non—Muslims
Hizeb - Hizeb-ul-mujahideen, a terrorist group
Inshallah - with the will of god
Jagmohan - two-time governor of J&K State
Jansangh - a former political party espousing Hindu nationalism
Jihad - holy war
Kangri - fire pot to keep one warm in winter
Kehva - Kashmiri tea
Kheerbhawani - incarnation of goddess at Tulamulla
Lahilaha-illalah - there is but one God
Lingam - the Hindu symbol of Siva - phallic symbol
Loo - hot wind that blows in the summer in Indian planes
KP - Kashmiri Pandit (Kashmiri Hindu)
McGwire - US baseball record holder
Mauj Kasheer - mother Kashmir
Migrant - exiled Kashmiri Pandit
Movement - the secessionist/freedom movement
Mujahid - holy warrior
Nizame Mustafa - the Muslim Utopia
Nausheen - The new (first) snowfall of the season
Octagon - the octagonal spring of Kheerbhawani
Paush - the 9th month in the lunar calendar
Phanda - traditional occult remedy for illness
Pitra paksha - ancestral fortnight
Qasaba - a Muslim female head dress in Kashmir
RSS - a Hindu socio-cultural organisation
Sammy Sosa - Dominican baseball player
Shradda - death anniversary
Siva - lord Shiva, also Shankara
Vena - a wild shrub held sacred and used as an offering
Yaksha - Yach in Kashmiri, a supernatural being
Yama - God of death
Zeystha - incarnation of goddess at the foothills of Mt. Mahadev in Srinagar
Zindabad - long live

JOIN US