Comparative Theology

Romans repeatedly makes claims that sit in direct tension with concepts already held by a Gujarati-speaking audience — and, distinctively, those concepts come from two separate systems, Hindu bhakti and Jain non-theism, that must each be named rather than collapsed into one.

Romans doctrine	Adjacent Hindu concept	Adjacent Jain concept	Key difference
Salvation (ઉદ્ધાર)	મોક્ષ / મુક્તિ — liberation from the cycle of rebirth, granted or approached through divine grace/devotion	કેવલજ્ઞાન / સિદ્ધત્વ — the soul’s own attainment of omniscient, liberated status, with no divine actor at all	Salvation is reconciliation with a personal God through a historical act (Christ’s death and resurrection); the Jain path in particular has no place for any savior or gift, only self-effort.
Incarnation (દેહધારણ)	અવતાર — a deity’s temporary, repeatable descent (Krishna at nearby Dwarka is the paradigm case)	(no equivalent — Jainism is non-theistic and admits no creator God who could take on flesh)	The incarnation is the eternal Son permanently and uniquely taking on human nature. For Hindu hearers this is a false-friend correction; for Jain hearers it is a concept built from nothing.
Grace (કૃપા)	કર્મફળ / પુણ્ય — merit accumulated through right action, sometimes released through a deity’s favor	નિર્જરા — the shedding of karmic matter achieved solely through the soul’s own austerity (tapa)	Grace is unearned favor apart from merit; the Jain concept in particular rules out any external gift entirely, since even nirjara is self-generated.
Resurrection (પુનરુત્થાન)	પુનર્જન્મ — rebirth into a new life within the same cosmic cycle	the soul’s (jiva) mechanical transmigration between bodies according to accumulated karma-particles, with no ending point outside self-effort	Resurrection is bodily, historical, and once-for-all; it ends the cycle rather than continuing or self-terminating it.
Lordship of Christ (પ્રભુત્વ)	one lord/deity among many in a devotee’s chosen pantheon	the Jain siddha — a liberated soul that permanently withdraws to the top of the universe in total, eternal non-interaction with the world	Christ’s Lordship is a living, presently active reign; the Jain liberated being, by contrast, has permanently exited relationship with the world altogether.

Why this matters for translation

Every row above shows two different “obvious but wrong” translations competing for the same Gujarati word, not one. translation_memory.json rejects both the Hindu-tradition and the Jain-tradition alternative for each Critical term, and reviewers need to be briefed on both, not just the more familiar Hindu-syncretism pattern common elsewhere in North India.