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 Maithili translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Native Maithili grammar over Hindi transplant — even where the underlying Sanskrit tatsama vocabulary is shared with Hindi, this glossary renders phrases using Maithili’s own postpositions, verb infinitives, and honorific verb agreement, rather than a word-for-word Hindi substitution.
- Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the obvious Vaishnava/Shaiva-tradition word, or the tempting Sita-exemplar comparison, is wrong (see
alternatives_rejected), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - 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 (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
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: पिता
Transliteration: pitā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्मा, सृष्टिकर्ता
God as personal Father. Never a Hindu creator-deity name (ब्रह्मा). Note: the everyday Maithili colloquial word for father (बाबू/बाबा) is deliberately not used in formal doctrinal reference to God, reserved instead for the tender, filial register of अब्बा below.
God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर
Transliteration: parameśvar
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: भगवान, ईश्वर
परमेश्वर (Supreme Lord) is preferred for doctrinal precision. भगवान is the everyday Maithili devotional address for one’s chosen deity (Ram, Krishna, Shiva) and carries too much devotional-object ambiguity for consistent doctrinal use.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: पवित्र आत्मा
Transliteration: pavitra ātmā
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्म, परमात्मा
CRITICAL: Never ब्रह्म (impersonal Absolute Reality of Vedantic philosophy) or परमात्मा alone (universal Self). पवित्र आत्मा names the personal Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: आरोपित धार्मिकता
Transliteration: āropit dhārmiktā
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: अर्जित धार्मिकता, सती-धर्म
Credited/attributed righteousness from God, NOT righteousness achieved through effort or through the wifely-virtue ideal (सती-धर्म) held up regionally through Sita’s example. अर्जित (earned) is explicitly rejected.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: देहधारण
Transliteration: dehadhāraṇ
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: अवतार, देह प्रकट
CRITICAL: NEVER अवतार. Mithila is the mythological setting of the Ramayana’s Sita-Ram narrative and a historic center of Krishna-Ram Vaishnava devotion (via Vidyapati’s poetic tradition); avatar theology is not abstract background here but a locally cherished, geographically ‘owned’ story. देहधारण must be explicitly distinguished as the eternal Son’s unique, permanent taking of human nature, not one more divine appearance in a story this audience already tells about their own region.
Jesus
Approved rendering: यीशु
Transliteration: Yīśu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईसा
Standard form in the limited existing Maithili Scripture portions, following North Indian Bible-translation precedent. ईसा belongs to Muslim/Urdu-influenced usage; use यीशु for this curriculum.
Justification
Approved rendering: धर्मी घोषित कएल जाएब
Transliteration: dharmī ghoṣit kael jaeb
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: क्षमा भेटब, पुण्य कमाएब
Compound phrase required, built on the native Maithili passive construction (कएल जाएब) rather than a borrowed Hindi passive, so the phrase reads as Maithili rather than transplanted Hindi. Forensic declaration of right standing; never abbreviate.
Lord
Approved rendering: प्रभु
Transliteration: prabhu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: स्वामी, मालिक
Established Christian term across North Indian Bible traditions, including the limited existing Maithili Scripture portions. In Romans 10:9 the confession renders ‘यीशु प्रभु छथि’, using the honorific verb form छथि appropriate to addressing/describing God — consistent honorific verb agreement is a distinctly Maithili grammatical requirement absent from Hindi.
Messiah
Approved rendering: मसीह
Transliteration: masīh
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: अभिषिक्त पुरुष, अवतारी पुरुष
Transliterated term. The Anointed One fulfilling a specific OT promise, not one of the region’s own line of avatar-figures (Ram, Krishna) awaited or worshipped in Mithila’s Vaishnava tradition.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: पुनरुत्थान
Transliteration: punaruthān
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: पुनर्जन्म, पुनर्जीवन
CRITICAL: NEVER पुनर्जन्म (rebirth within the cycle of रोकल-मुक्ति/samsara). पुनरुत्थान is bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection; always add a distinguishing note from reincarnation at first occurrence.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: धार्मिकता
Transliteration: dhārmiktā
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, पुण्य, सतीत्व
CRITICAL: Never धर्म (cosmic/social duty) and never सतीत्व (the chastity/wifely-virtue ideal embodied by Sita, Mithila’s most culturally cherished moral exemplar). धार्मिकता is right standing before God received through faith, not a duty performed or a virtue achieved through faithful conduct.
Salvation
Approved rendering: उद्धार
Transliteration: uddhār
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: मुक्ति, मोक्ष, छुटकारा
CRITICAL: NEVER मुक्ति or मोक्ष — these carry the standard North Indian Hindu liberation-from-rebirth meaning shared across Maithil Vaishnava and Shaiva practice. उद्धार names deliverance by God through Christ. छुटकारा may be used for ‘redemption’ in specific rescue-narrative contexts only.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरक पुत्र
Transliteration: parameśvarak putra
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरक अंश, देवपुरुष
CRITICAL: full phrase required, using the Maithili genitive marker -क rather than Hindi का, so the phrase reads as native Maithili rather than borrowed Hindi. Conveys eternal, unique Sonship within the Godhead.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: अब्बा
Transliteration: abbā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of filial intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15; retain the transliteration rather than reducing it to formal पिता alone.
Adoption
Approved rendering: पुत्रत्व प्रदान
Transliteration: putratva pradān
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: गोद लेब
गोद लेब (the ordinary Maithili verb for ‘to adopt’) is understood and usable, but standing alone can imply a lesser or informal domestic arrangement; पुत्रत्व प्रदान (‘granting of full sonship’) foregrounds complete inheritance rights.
Called
Approved rendering: बजाओल
Transliteration: bajāol
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: आमंत्रित, नेह पाओल
Context-sensitive: in 1:1, called to apostleship; in 1:7, called to be saints; in 8:28-30, effectual calling to salvation. Uses the native Maithili verb बजाएब (to call/summon) rather than the Sanskrit-borrowed आमंत्रित, which reads as a polite social invitation rather than a sovereign summons.
Calling
Approved rendering: बजाओल जाएब
Transliteration: bajāol jāeb
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: आह्वान
Noun-phrase form for the act/state of being called by God, built on the same native verb root as ‘called’ for consistency across the two forms.
Covenant
Approved rendering: वाचा
Transliteration: vācā
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: अनुबंध, बिआह-सम्बन्ध
Relational covenant bond, more than a legal contract (अनुबंध). Resist illustrating covenant solely through the region’s celebrated Sita-Ram marriage bond (बिआह-सम्बन्ध, commemorated at Vivah Panchami) — a useful bridge for relational faithfulness, but marriage is a human institution, and covenant here specifically names God’s own binding promise to David.
Election
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरक चुनाव
Transliteration: parameśvarak cunāv
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, किस्मत, प्रारब्ध
God’s sovereign personal choice, not karma-determined fate (प्रारब्ध) or impersonal destiny.
Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वास
Transliteration: biswas
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: श्रद्धा, भक्ति
Trust placed in a specific person (Christ), not generalized devotional reverence. भक्ति carries the full weight of Mithila’s Ram-Sita and Shiva bhakti devotional tradition (celebrated regionally through Vidyapati’s devotional poetry) and must not stand in for saving trust in Christ specifically.
Glory
Approved rendering: महिमा
Transliteration: mahimā
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: तेज, ज्योति
God’s radiant presence and honor. Avoid light-imagery terms that could conflate with descriptions of divine luster common in regional Puranic narrative.
Gospel
Approved rendering: सुसमाचार
Transliteration: susamācār
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: नीक खबर, शुभ सन्देश
Sanskrit tatsama term shared across Maithili and Hindi religious registers; retained because it is already the rendering used in the limited existing Maithili Scripture portions. नीक खबर (‘good news’ in native Maithili vocabulary) is accurate but too casual for the unique, proclaimed message this curriculum needs to mark as doctrinally weighty.
Grace
Approved rendering: अनुग्रह
Transliteration: anugraha
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: कृपा, दया, पुण्य, कर्मफल, भाग
Must convey unmerited favor apart from human merit, directly countering the karma-merit worldview common to Maithil Vaishnava and Shaiva devotional practice alike. कृपा may be used for ordinary compassion in non-salvific contexts only. Resist the pastoral instinct to illustrate grace through Sita’s self-sacrificial devotion (an exemplary-merit model of virtue) — that comparison quietly reframes grace as something modeled and earned rather than freely given.
Holy
Approved rendering: पवित्र
Transliteration: pavitra
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: शुद्ध, निर्मल
पवित्र = set apart for God, morally pure. शुद्ध leans toward ritual purity, especially loaded in a region where Panjikaran-verified lineage purity carries real social weight; keep पवित्र consistent for the theological sense.
Law
Approved rendering: व्यवस्था
Transliteration: byavasthā
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, नियम
Torah/Mosaic law. NEVER धर्म. व्यवस्था follows established North Indian Bible-translation precedent.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वासक आज्ञाकारिता
Transliteration: biswasak ājñākāritā
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: धार्मिक कर्तव्य पालन
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith, not duty-based religious compliance (कर्तव्य पालन), a term with strong resonance in Mithila’s dharma-bound household-duty ideal.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरक सामर्थ्य
Transliteration: parameśvarak sāmarthya
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: शक्ति, बल
Use सामर्थ्य; never शक्ति alone, which carries strong Shakta-goddess associations in a region with active Durga/Kali worship traditions (e.g. the regionally significant Ugratara shrine).
Providence
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरक विधान
Transliteration: parameśvarak vidhān
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, प्रारब्ध
God’s personal, purposive governance. Never भाग्य or प्रारब्ध (fate/destiny), both strongly present in everyday Maithili religious idiom.
Saints
Approved rendering: पवित्र जन
Transliteration: pavitra jan
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: संत, सती
संत suggests an ascetic holy man; सती evokes the specific Mithila-region ideal of the devoted, self-sacrificing wife (embodied by Sita) and would wrongly gender and narrow ‘saints’ to a moral-exemplar category. पवित्र जन applies corporately to all believers, regardless of gender or achieved virtue.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: पवित्रीकरण
Transliteration: pavitrīkaraṇ
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: शुद्धिकरण, संस्कार
Process of being made holy by the Spirit, distinct from the region’s संस्कार life-cycle purification rites and from Panjikaran-linked lineage-purity concerns.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: दाऊदक वंशसँ
Transliteration: Dāūdak vanśasã̃
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment, using the Maithili genitive -क and instrumental -सँ markers rather than Hindi postpositions.
Sin
Approved rendering: पाप
Transliteration: pāp
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: अधर्म, अशुद्धता
Moral transgression before a personal God, distinguished from ritual impurity (अशुद्धता) and from an impersonal karmic debt.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: प्रेरित
Transliteration: prerit
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: दूत, पंडित
Conveys an authorized, sent-out messenger with delegated authority. पंडित must be avoided: in Mithila, a Maithil Brahmin pandit is specifically the custodian of Panjikaran, the region’s genealogical registry used to verify caste-lineage purity for marriage arrangement — an institutional role with no relation to apostolic commissioning.
Church
Approved rendering: मण्डली
Transliteration: maṇḍalī
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: मन्दिर, मठ
Never मन्दिर (Hindu temple) and never मठ (a monastic institution attached to a particular deity or guru lineage, common across Mithila’s Shaiva and Vaishnava centers). मण्डली names the local congregation.
David
Approved rendering: दाऊद
Transliteration: Dāūd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Follows established North Indian Bible-translation proper-name form.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: अन्यजाति
Transliteration: anyajāti
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: विदेशी
Non-Jews. Use जातिसभ (nations/peoples) in mission contexts; avoid any confusion with जाति in its caste-lineage sense, which carries heavy weight in Mithila’s Panjikaran-conscious social structure.
Intercession
Approved rendering: मध्यस्थता
Transliteration: madhyasthatā
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: सिफारिश
Prayer offered on behalf of others through Christ as sole mediator. सिफारिश (recommendation/patronage) carries a social-favor connotation unsuited to this theological sense.
Israel
Approved rendering: इस्राएल
Transliteration: Isrāel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; follows established Bible-translation form.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरक राज्य
Transliteration: parameśvarak rājya
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरक राष्ट्र
God’s sovereign reign, distinguished from political-kingdom associations — a sensitive area given Mithila’s own historic identity as the ancient kingdom of Raja Janak.
Mission
Approved rendering: सुसमाचार प्रचार
Transliteration: susamācār pracār
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: मिशन
Describes the activity plainly. मिशन is avoided given Mithila’s comparatively thin history of mission-institution presence, where the borrowed English word would read as unfamiliar and foreign rather than as an established term of art.
Peace
Approved rendering: शान्ति
Transliteration: śānti
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: चैन, सुख
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not the domestic-harmony ideal (gharelu sukh-shanti) associated with the Sita-Ram household model held up regionally as the picture of peace.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: आत्मिक वरदान
Transliteration: ātmik varadān
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: वरदान, सिद्धि
वरदान alone carries the Puranic sense of a boon granted by a deity for austerity or devotion; always pair with आत्मिक (spiritual) to mark it as Spirit-given, not earned or bargained-for.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: उत्साहित करब
Transliteration: utsāhit karab
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use विनती (entreaty) for beseeching; उत्साहित करब (encourage) for building up, using the native Maithili infinitive -करब rather than Hindi’s -करना.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: सङ्गति
Transliteration: saṅgati
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: मित्रता, समाज
Shared participation in Christ; समाज (society) is too generic-civic for this theological sense.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: भविष्यवाणी
Transliteration: bhaviṣyavāṇī
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: भविष्यफल
God-inspired declaration, distinct from astrological prediction (भविष्यफल).
Prophet
Approved rendering: भविष्यद्वक्ता
Transliteration: bhaviṣyadvaktā
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: ज्योतिषी
God’s spokesperson; distinguish from an astrologer/fortune-teller (ज्योतिषी), a live profession in a region where Panjikaran genealogists and astrologers both play matchmaking roles.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: धन्यवाद
Transliteration: dhanyavād
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term; no significant doctrinal risk.
Referenced passages