Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Bodo translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including whether a term is provisional pending native-theologian confirmation
Governing principles
- Established Bodo Bible usage over invention — where the Bible Society of India’s Bodo Bible already has a settled rendering (ईश्वर, जिसु, प्रभु, मसीह), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the tempting alternative is wrong (see
alternatives_rejected), whether that alternative comes from Bathouism (बाथौबुरै, फिन जोनोम-adjacent framings) or from Brahma Dharma’s Sanskritized reform vocabulary (पुण्य, मोक्ष-style language). - Honest flagging of conceptual gaps — unlike languages where the risk is picking the right existing word, several Bodo entries (most notably salvation) are marked as needing the underlying concept taught from the ground up, not merely a corrected word choice.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: आफा
Transliteration: afa
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: बाथौबुरै (reserve strictly for describing traditional belief, never for the biblical Father)
God as personal Father; आफा is the ordinary Bodo word for father, chosen for its warmth and intimacy rather than an inherited deity-elder title such as बाथौबुरै.
God
Approved rendering: ईश्वर
Transliteration: Isor
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: बाथौबुरै (never use as the primary term for the biblical God; reserve strictly for describing traditional Bathou belief)
CRITICAL: ईश्वर (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan, standard across most Bodo Christian usage) is deliberately preferred over बाथौबुरै (Bathoubwrai, the aniconic supreme deity of traditional Bathou worship, represented by the sijou plant), to avoid presenting the biblical God as simply the existing Bathou high god under a new name. This curriculum should name and explain this choice rather than let it pass silently, since a well-meaning translator could easily reach for the culturally resonant native term.
Grace
Approved rendering: मोफादांनाय दान
Transliteration: mwphwdangnai daan
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: दान गोरोबनाय (a reciprocal gift expecting return offering, rejected), पुण्य (Brahma Dharma merit-language, never use)
CRITICAL: a descriptive compound meaning roughly ‘freely-given gift’ is required because both live comparative frameworks pull toward a transactional reading: traditional Bathou practice offers goods to Bathoubwrai and the Kherai pantheon in exchange for protection and prosperity (a reciprocal do-ut-des logic), while Brahma Dharma’s reformed ethic frames divine favor in terms of accumulated पुण्य (merit). Romans’ ‘apart from works’ argument (4:4-5, 11:5-6) must therefore be stated explicitly, not left to the word alone, and this rendering should be reconfirmed with native speakers before enforcement.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: पबित्र आत्था
Transliteration: pobitro aatha
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: देउ (a generic spirit-being from the Bathou/Kherai pantheon, never use), बुरहा-बुरही आत्था (ancestral household spirits venerated in traditional practice, never use)
CRITICAL: पबित्र आत्था must always be used in full. Bare आत्था/देउ language names one spirit among the many nature-spirits and ancestral spirits recognized in Bathou practice and invoked through Kherai puja; the personal, singular, indwelling Holy Spirit of Romans 8 must be sharply distinguished from that populated spirit-world.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: दानै लाबोनाय धार्मिकता
Transliteration: danai labwnai dharmikota
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: मोनसे नि गुनथिजों लाबोनाय धार्मिकता (righteousness earned by one’s own good conduct, the explicit rejected opposite)
CRITICAL: a provisional compound (‘righteousness received as a gift’) distinguishing credited from earned righteousness; this concept must be explicitly taught, since neither traditional Bathou practice (oriented toward reciprocal ritual exchange) nor Brahma Dharma’s reformed ethic (oriented toward accumulated merit) has a ready native equivalent. This rendering should be confirmed with a Bodo-speaking theologian before wide deployment.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: मानसि गुदि सोलायनाय
Transliteration: manwsi gudi solainai
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: देउनि आगोर (a deity temporarily ‘descending into’ or speaking through a doudini during Kherai trance, never use)
CRITICAL: a descriptive compound (‘taking on a human body’) is required. This must be sharply distinguished in teaching from the Kherai puja’s doudini possession, in which Bathoubwrai or another deity is understood to temporarily seize and speak through a human medium during ritual trance — a real, currently practiced phenomenon. The incarnation is the eternal Son permanently and personally taking human nature, not a deity briefly using a human vessel. Bathouism’s own worship is aniconic (centered on the sijou plant, not an image or embodied deity), which makes any embodiment language doctrinally loaded and in need of careful framing.
Jesus
Approved rendering: जिसु
Transliteration: Jisu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
जिसु follows the Bodo Bible’s established form (paralleling Assamese যীচু, Zisu). Consistency with the existing full Bodo Bible (Bible Society of India) should be verified directly against a current printed copy before this curriculum is finalized.
Justification
Approved rendering: धार्मिक होनाय राव
Transliteration: dharmik honai rao
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: गुनाहनि माफ (forgiveness of sin alone, too narrow)
CRITICAL: a descriptive compound (‘the declaration of being made righteous’) is required; no single Bodo word carries the forensic, once-for-all legal-declaration sense. Must never be abbreviated to ‘forgiveness’ alone, which loses the positive declared-righteous dimension Romans 4 depends on.
Lord
Approved rendering: प्रभु
Transliteration: probhu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: बुरहा/बर’ऐ titles reserved for Bathoubwrai and Kherai-pantheon elder-deities, never use for Christ
CRITICAL: प्रभु (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan already used in the Bodo Bible) is preferred specifically because it is not one of the honorific elder-titles (बर’ऐ/बुरहा, ‘great old one’) applied to Bathoubwrai and other Kherai-pantheon deities. Using a native honorific here would risk placing Christ inside the existing Bathou pantheon as one great elder-spirit among several rather than the exclusive, supreme Lord Romans 10:9 confesses.
Messiah
Approved rendering: मसीह
Transliteration: mosih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Transliterated term, following regional Bible-translation convention. The Anointed One fulfilling Old Testament promise; not one of many deities or spirit-mediators recognized in the Bathou pantheon.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: जिउनाय सोलायनाय
Transliteration: jiunai solainai
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: फिन जोनोम (rebirth into a new life-cycle, a concept absorbed into Brahma Dharma from Hindu reincarnation teaching, never use)
CRITICAL: a descriptive phrase (‘turning back to life’) avoids फिन जोनोम, the rebirth/reincarnation vocabulary that entered Bodo religious discourse through Brahma Dharma’s Hindu-influenced reform teaching. Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection must be distinguished clearly from any cyclical rebirth framework in translator notes.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: धार्मिकता
Transliteration: dharmikota
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: धर्म (avoid the bare Sanskritic sense of cosmic duty imported through Brahma Dharma reform teaching)
CRITICAL: धार्मिकता (built on the same Sanskrit root Brahma Dharma uses for its own reformed religious-duty system) must be explicitly defined in this curriculum as right standing before God received through faith, not the reformed community’s structured code of right conduct. Because Brahma Dharma explicitly recast Bodo identity around a Sanskritic dharma-framework in the early 20th century, this distinction needs more, not less, explanation than in a Hindu-majority context.
Salvation
Approved rendering: फोरायनाय
Transliteration: phoraynai
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: मोक्ष (Brahma Dharma’s Hindu-derived liberation concept, never use), रैखाथि (protection from the Kherai pantheon against misfortune, never use as a stand-alone gloss for eternal salvation)
CRITICAL: फोरायनाय (‘being rescued/delivered’) is preferred because Bathouism itself has no developed eschatological salvation concept at all — its ritual life (Kherai puja, household sijou offerings) is oriented toward securing protection, harvest, and household prosperity in this life, not deliverance from sin or an afterlife destiny. Brahma Dharma’s reform introduced मोक्ष-style liberation language, which must never be used. This is a conceptual gap to be taught, not a wrong existing word to be avoided, and differs in kind from Hindi’s risk profile.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: ईश्वरनि गोरा
Transliteration: Isornni gwra
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: देवता गोरा (a lesser divine being’s son, an explicit downgrade)
CRITICAL: full phrase required, built on ईश्वर (see ‘god’ entry). Never render in a way that suggests one spirit-being’s offspring among the many spirit-beings recognized in the Bathou pantheon; this doctrine must be taught as unique, eternal Sonship within the one God.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: अब्बा
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved as a transliteration alongside आफा (Romans 8:15), following the pattern used by related regional Bible translations.
Adoption
Approved rendering: गोसोआव फैनाय
Transliteration: gwswao phoinai
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
A descriptive compound (‘being brought into the heart/family’) stands in for formal legal adoption, which is not a settled Bodo kinship category the way it is in Western law; traditional Bodo clan (afad) identity and inheritance run through birth lineage. This curriculum should stress Romans 8:15-17’s full inheritance-rights sense explicitly rather than assume a ready cultural equivalent, and confirm this rendering with native speakers.
Called
Approved rendering: फिनायाव
Transliteration: phinaiyao
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: मिनतिनाय (a plea/invitation, too weak)
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation. Must be distinguished from the sense of a doudini being ‘called’ or seized by a deity during Kherai trance — God’s call in Romans is a purposeful, relational summons, not spirit-possession.
Calling
Approved rendering: फिनायनि सिम
Transliteration: phinaini sim
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Noun form for the state of being called. Kept structurally parallel to फिनायाव (called) for teaching consistency across the curriculum.
Covenant
Approved rendering: गोसाथारि
Transliteration: gwsathari
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
A relational covenant bond, built on gwsw (heart) and thari (a binding/tie); confirm this compound’s exact naturalness with a Bodo-speaking theologian, as no crystallized single covenant-theology term is attested in currently available Bodo Christian literature.
Election
Approved rendering: ईश्वरनि सायख
Transliteration: Isornni saikho
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: भागी (fate/fortune, too impersonal)
God’s sovereign, personal choice; must be distinguished from भागी, a fate/fortune framing familiar from both folk belief and Brahma Dharma’s Hindu-influenced ethic, which is impersonal rather than relational.
Faith
Approved rendering: बिश्वास
Transliteration: biswas
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: भरोसा (generic trust, too weak alone)
बिश्वास (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan already established in Bodo Christian usage) covers belief and trust. The object of faith must always be specified in context; without that, बिश्वास risks reading as generic religious devotion transferable to Bathoubwrai or the Kherai pantheon rather than as personal trust in Christ specifically.
Glory
Approved rendering: महिमा
Transliteration: mohima
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant honor and presence. Avoid metaphors that could be read as describing the trance-radiance or oracular authority attributed to a doudini during Kherai puja; God’s glory is his own self-existent majesty, not a mediated ritual state.
Gospel
Approved rendering: मंगल खबर
Transliteration: mangal khabor
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: सुसमाचार (Hindi loan, avoid as default; retain only as an explanatory gloss for readers already literate in Hindi)
मंगल खबर (‘auspicious/good news,’ built on the widely understood Assamese-Sanskrit loan मंगल) is preferred over a direct Hindi सुसमाचार borrowing, since this curriculum should read as Bodo, not as Hindi-with-Devanagari-spelling. Confirm with a Bodo-speaking theologian that मंगल does not carry unwanted Brahma Dharma ritual-auspiciousness connotations before wide deployment.
Holy
Approved rendering: पबित्र
Transliteration: pobitro
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: साफ (physically clean, ritual-purity sense only)
पबित्र (an Assamese/Sanskrit loan) conveys moral purity and being set apart for God. साफ must be reserved for physical/ritual cleanliness, distinct from the Kherai puja’s own purification rites performed before the doudini enters trance.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: बिश्वासनि मानोन
Transliteration: biswasni manwn
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: धर्मनि निदान मानोन (rule-keeping obedience to a reformed religious code, a works-based misreading)
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith, not the structured rule-observance ethic Brahma Dharma’s reform introduced into Bodo religious life. This distinction should be made explicit.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: ईश्वरनि सक्ति
Transliteration: Isornni sakti
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: देउनि सक्ति (spirit/deity power as manifested through a doudini’s trance, avoid as a substitute)
God’s saving power (Romans 1:16) must be kept categorically distinct from देउनि सक्ति, the kind of spirit-mediated ritual power attributed to Bathou/Kherai practice, especially the doudini’s oracular trance state.
Providence
Approved rendering: ईश्वरनि सामलानाय
Transliteration: Isornni samlanai
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: भागी (fate, never use)
God’s personal, purposive care; never भागी (fate). Romans 8:28 is specifically vulnerable to being reheard as an impersonal-fate assurance rather than a relational promise, and should be taught with that risk named directly.
Saints
Approved rendering: पबित्र मानुष
Transliteration: pobitro manwsw
Doctrine: Sainthood
Corporate term for all believers set apart to God (Romans 1:7); must not be narrowed to suggest an elite class of especially devoted individuals, a risk given the Bathou tradition’s own recognized specialist religious roles (the doudini oracle, ritual priests called deuri or ojha in related Assam-region traditions).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: पबित्रनाय
Transliteration: pobitronai
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: साफनाय (ritual cleansing, avoid as a substitute)
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy; distinct from the household and courtyard cleansing rites that precede Bathou and Kherai ceremonies, which are ritual/external rather than internal and moral.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: दाऊदनि बेंसे
Transliteration: Daudni bense
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; a descriptive phrase conveying physical lineage, resonating with the strong emphasis on clan (afad) and lineage identity in traditional Bodo kinship structure.
Sin
Approved rendering: गुनाह
Transliteration: gunah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: दोष (fault/blame, too weak/civic)
गुनाह (a widely borrowed term across Assam-region languages) conveys moral transgression before a personal God. Must be distinguished from ritual impurity addressed through Bathou/Kherai cleansing rites, which are about restoring household or community harmony rather than answering to a holy God.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: गोदान जायगारि
Transliteration: godan jaigari
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: दूत (generic messenger, too weak)
A descriptive compound (‘one sent with a commission’) conveys authorized, sent-out ministry. Confirm regional naturalness with Bodo-speaking theologians given limited existing devotional literature using this exact phrase.
Church
Approved rendering: मण्डली
Transliteration: mwndoli
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: नमासोलि (Bathou/Kherai shrine site or worship ground, never use)
मण्डली (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan established in Bodo Christian usage) refers to the gathered assembly of believers. Must remain clearly distinct from नमासोलि, the ritual worship site associated with Bathou and Kherai ceremonies.
David
Approved rendering: दाऊद
Transliteration: Daud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper-name transliteration, following regional Bible-translation convention.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: गैर-जुथुद
Transliteration: goir-juthud
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Non-Jewish peoples; renders ‘nation/community’ (जुथुद/jothaí) with a negating prefix. Use with sensitivity given that Bodo ethnic and territorial identity politics in Assam make ‘ethnic group/nation’ language a genuinely live and sometimes contested category.
Intercession
Approved rendering: मोनसे नि थाखाय बिनयनाय
Transliteration: monse ni thakhai binoinai
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Prayer/petition made on behalf of another. Must be kept distinct from the mediated petitions a doudini or ओझा might be asked to carry to Bathoubwrai or the Kherai pantheon on a household’s behalf — Romans 8:26-27 describes the Spirit’s own direct intercession, not a human ritual specialist’s mediating role.
Israel
Approved rendering: इस्राएल
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; standard transliteration.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: ईश्वरनि राज्य
Transliteration: Isornni rajyo
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign; should be explicitly distinguished from any territorial or ethnic-political framing, given the Bodoland Territorial Region’s own strong contemporary association of Bodo identity with territorial political claims.
Law
Approved rendering: बिथान
Transliteration: bithan
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: धर्मनि नियम (Brahma Dharma’s own codified religious-conduct rules, avoid as the primary gloss)
बिथान (law/rule/ordinance) refers to the Mosaic Law/Torah in this curriculum. Should be distinguished from the codified conduct rules Brahma Dharma introduced as part of its early-20th-century reform of Bodo religious practice.
Mission
Approved rendering: मंगल खबरनि दायो
Transliteration: mangal khaborni dayo
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
‘The task/responsibility of the good news.’ Given the history of American Baptist mission work among the Bodo (from the mid-19th century) becoming entangled in local memory with colonial-era administration, frame evangelism as the church’s own ongoing calling rather than as a foreign historical project.
Peace
Approved rendering: सान्ति
Transliteration: santi
Doctrine: Peace with God
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not the household harmony and protection from misfortune that Bathou and Kherai offerings are meant to secure. Distinguish these explicitly in teaching notes.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: आत्मानि दान
Transliteration: aatmani daan
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: सक्ति (a generic supernatural power associated with the doudini’s trance abilities, avoid as a substitute)
आत्मानि दान (‘gift of the Spirit’) must be kept distinct from सक्ति, the kind of ritual/mediumistic power attributed to a doudini in Kherai puja practice. Spirit-given gifts serve the church; they are not possession-derived oracular abilities.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: गोसो होनाय
Transliteration: gwsw honai
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use for encouragement/building up; use बिनयनाय for entreaty/pleading contexts.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: गोसो जोंथानाय
Transliteration: gwsw jwnthanai
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
A descriptive term for shared heart/mind and mutual participation in Christ; confirm regional naturalness with native speakers given limited established Bodo Christian devotional vocabulary for this specific sense.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: भाबिष्यत रां
Transliteration: bhabishyot rang
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration of what is to come; distinct from divinatory pronouncements made by a doudini in trance or an ओझा in folk-ritual practice.
Prophet
Approved rendering: भाबिष्यत सोंग्रा
Transliteration: bhabishyot songra
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: ओझा (a traditional folk ritual specialist/diviner, never use)
God’s spokesperson; must not be confused with ओझा, a shamanic ritual specialist/diviner figure recognized in traditional Bodo village religious life, distinct from the doudini’s Kherai-specific oracular role.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: धिनानाय
Transliteration: dhinanai
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term for gratitude/thanks. No significant doctrinal risk.
Referenced passages