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 Manipuri (Bengali script) translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons drawn from either Sanamahism, Vaishnavism, or both
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established Manipuri Bible usage over invention — where the Bible Society of India’s Manipuri Bible already has a settled rendering (তেংবাং মপু, জিসু, মপু ইবুংগো, ক্রিস্তো), 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, whether that alternative comes from Vaishnavism (অবতার, মোক্ষ, কৃপা, ঠাকুর) or from Sanamahism (সানামাহি, bare থাওয়াই, maibi trance-power).
- Dual-tradition discipline — this glossary never assumes a single tradition’s risk reasoning covers both audiences; several notes explicitly separate the Sanamahi-context risk from the Vaishnava-context risk for the same term.
- 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: ইপা
Transliteration: Ipa
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father; ইপা is the ordinary Meitei word for father, chosen for its warmth and intimacy rather than a royal-divine title tied to the Pakhangba lineage tradition or a Vaishnava devotional title.
God
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপু
Transliteration: Tengban Mapu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ঠাকুর (a devotional title strongly associated with Krishna in Manipuri Vaishnavism, avoid as the primary term), সানামাহি (never use as the primary term for the biblical God; reserve strictly for describing traditional Sanamahi belief about the household deity)
CRITICAL: তেংবাং মপু, the established Manipuri Christian term for God, is deliberately preferred over both ঠাকুর (which would place God inside the existing Krishna-devotional framework) and সানামাহি (the household/ancestral deity of indigenous Sanamahi religion, currently undergoing active revival). This curriculum should name and explain this choice rather than let it pass silently, since either alternative is culturally resonant and could easily be reached for.
Grace
Approved rendering: মথৌ তাদনা পীবা তেংবাং
Transliteration: mathou tadana piba tengbang
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: কৃপা (a term shared with Vaishnava bhakti usage for Krishna’s compassionate favor toward a devotee, avoid as the primary term), পুণ্য (merit accumulated through devotional service/seva, never use)
CRITICAL: a descriptive compound (‘favor given without needing to be earned’) is required. Manipuri Vaishnavism’s bhakti devotionalism has its own well-developed concept of কৃপা (Krishna’s grace toward a devoted follower), but this is typically understood as responsive to the devotee’s bhakti (devoted love and service, seva), not wholly unconditioned. Romans’ ‘apart from works’ argument (4:4-5, 11:5-6) must be stated explicitly against this bhakti-responsive framework, not assumed from a borrowed word.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: থাওয়াই অসেংবা
Transliteration: Thawai Asengba
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: থাওয়াই alone (a generic spirit/soul, which in Sanamahi belief can also name an ancestral or Umang Lai nature-spirit, never use without অসেংবা), শক্তি (a maibi’s oracular trance-power, never use)
CRITICAL: থাওয়াই অসেংবা must always be used in full. Bare থাওয়াই names the general category of spirit/soul in Meitei belief, which in Sanamahi religious practice extends to ancestral spirits (Apokpa) and the Umang Lai nature-deities honored at Lai Haraoba; the personal, singular, indwelling Holy Spirit of Romans 8 must be sharply distinguished from that populated spirit-world.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: পীথোকপা অচুম্বা চৎনবিরাক
Transliteration: pithokpa achumba chatnabirak
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: ফংলকপা অচুম্বা চৎনবিরাক (righteousness earned/obtained by one’s own effort, the explicit rejected opposite)
CRITICAL: a provisional compound (‘righteousness given as a gift’) distinguishing credited from earned righteousness; this concept must be explicitly taught, since Manipuri Vaishnavism’s bhakti framework (devotional service building toward divine favor) has no ready native equivalent for a status credited apart from any devotional achievement. This rendering should be confirmed with a Manipuri-speaking theologian before wide deployment.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: মীওইগী মহৈ লৌবা
Transliteration: miwoigi mahai louba
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: অবতার (never use; Manipuri Vaishnavism’s Krishna-avatar devotion, expressed through the Ras Lila tradition, makes this the single highest-salience wrong word for Meitei readers)
CRITICAL: NEVER use অবতার. Because Manipuri Vaishnavism’s devotion to Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu is expressed through the historically royal-patronized, now UNESCO-recognized Ras Lila dance tradition, avatar theology is a matter of prestigious, actively performed cultural-religious identity for Meitei Hindus, not a distant abstraction. মীওইগী মহৈ লৌবা (‘taking on human form/nature’) must be taught as the eternal Son’s permanent, unique assumption of human nature, once, not a recurring divine descent enacted in devotional dance.
Jesus
Approved rendering: জিসু
Transliteration: Jisu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
জিসু follows the existing Manipuri Bible’s established form; confirm against a current printed edition before this curriculum is finalized.
Justification
Approved rendering: অচুম্বা ওইহনবা
Transliteration: achumba oihanba
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: ময়ামদা কোকপা (forgiveness alone, too narrow)
CRITICAL: a descriptive compound (‘being made/declared righteous’) is required to carry the forensic, once-for-all legal-declaration sense; must never be abbreviated to mere forgiveness, which loses the ‘declared righteous’ dimension central to Romans 4.
Lord
Approved rendering: মপু ইবুংগো
Transliteration: Mapu Ibungo
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ঠাকুর (a devotional title for Krishna in Manipuri Vaishnava usage, avoid as the primary term for Christ’s Lordship to prevent placing Christ inside the existing Krishna-devotional framework)
CRITICAL: মপু ইবুংগো (‘Lord/Master,’ an existing respectful Meitei title) is preferred over ঠাকুর, which carries strong devotional association with Krishna specifically in Manipuri Vaishnava practice (as venerated through Ras Lila devotion); using ঠাকুর risks framing Christ as one more object of bhakti devotion within the existing Vaishnava system rather than exclusive, supreme Lord.
Messiah
Approved rendering: ক্রিস্তো
Transliteration: Christo
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Transliterated term, following existing Manipuri Bible-translation convention. The Anointed One fulfilling Old Testament promise, not one avatar among Vishnu’s recognized avatar sequence culminating (in some Vaishnava schemes) with Krishna.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: সিবদগী হিংজত-লকপা
Transliteration: sibadagi hingjat-lakpa
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: পুনর্জন্ম (rebirth/reincarnation, a category absorbed into Meitei religious vocabulary through Vaishnavization, never use)
CRITICAL: a descriptive phrase (‘coming back to life from death’) avoids পুনর্জন্ম, the rebirth/reincarnation vocabulary that entered Meitei religious discourse through the Hindu Vaishnava tradition. Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection must be distinguished from any cyclical rebirth framework in translator notes.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: অচুম্বা চৎনবিরাক
Transliteration: achumba chatnabirak
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: ধর্ম (avoid the broad Hindu-derived sense of cosmic/religious duty absorbed into Meitei religious vocabulary through Vaishnavization)
CRITICAL: right standing before God received through faith, not ধর্ম-style religious duty. This distinction needs explicit teaching, since ধর্ম entered Meitei religious vocabulary specifically through the 18th-century Vaishnavization process and is not an ancient indigenous category.
Salvation
Approved rendering: অহানবা
Transliteration: ahanba
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: মোক্ষ (Vaishnava/Hindu liberation, never use), লাইনিং (union/absorption into a deity’s divine presence as sought through intense bhakti or Sanamahi ancestral favor, never use as a stand-alone gloss for eternal salvation)
CRITICAL: অহানবা (‘being rescued/delivered’) must never collapse into মোক্ষ (Vaishnava liberation) or into a bhakti-devotee’s hoped-for eternal nearness to or absorption into Krishna’s presence in Vaikuntha/Goloka, a real and specific aspiration within Manipuri Vaishnava devotional life. Salvation is reconciliation with a personal, holy God through Christ’s finished historical work, not a devotional-union outcome.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপুগী মচানুপা
Transliteration: Tengban Mapugi machanupa
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: অবতার (avatar, an incarnate deity-descent as understood in Manipuri Vaishnavism, e.g. Krishna, an explicit downgrade and rejected)
CRITICAL: full phrase required, built on তেংবাং মপু (see ‘god’ entry). Given how thoroughly Manipuri Vaishnavism has integrated avatar theology (Krishna’s descents, celebrated through Ras Lila) into elite and popular Meitei religious life since the 18th century, this doctrine must be taught as unique, eternal Sonship within the Godhead, not one more avatar in a divine sequence.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: আব্বা
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved as a transliteration alongside ইপা (Romans 8:15), following the pattern used by related regional Bible translations.
Adoption
Approved rendering: মচা ওইনা লৌবা
Transliteration: macha oina louba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
A descriptive compound (‘taking as a child’) stands in for formal legal adoption; traditional Meitei kinship and clan (yumnak) identity runs primarily through birth lineage, so this curriculum should stress the full inheritance-rights sense of Romans 8:15-17 explicitly rather than assume a ready cultural equivalent.
Called
Approved rendering: কৌখিবা
Transliteration: koukhiba
Doctrine: Divine Calling
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 a maibi priestess being ritually ‘called’ or seized by an Umang Lai deity during Lai Haraoba trance.
Calling
Approved rendering: কৌবগী থৌদাং
Transliteration: koubagi thoudang
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Noun form for the act/state of being called, kept structurally parallel to কৌখিবা (called).
Covenant
Approved rendering: ৱারেপ্পা
Transliteration: wareppa
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
A relational covenant/promise bond; confirm this rendering’s exact naturalness with a Manipuri-speaking theologian, as no crystallized single covenant-theology term is attested in currently available Manipuri Christian literature.
Election
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপুগী খনবা
Transliteration: Tengban Mapugi khanba
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: ৱাইফম (fate/destiny, never use)
God’s sovereign, personal choice; must be distinguished from ৱাইফম (impersonal fate) and from the sense of royal-divine selection historically claimed by the Meitei kingship tradition (descent from Pakhangba).
Faith
Approved rendering: থাজবা
Transliteration: thajaba
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: ভক্তি (bhakti, devoted loving worship, too specific to the Vaishnava devotional framework)
থাজবা (belief/trust) is preferred over ভক্তি because Manipuri Vaishnavism’s ভক্তি names a specific, well-developed devotional practice (as expressed in Ras Lila devotion to Krishna) rather than the personal, saving trust in Christ Romans describes. The object of faith must always be specified in context.
Glory
Approved rendering: মতিক চাউবা
Transliteration: matik chauba
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant honor and presence. Avoid metaphors that could conflate with the ceremonial splendor of Ras Lila performance staging, which is designed to visually evoke Krishna’s own divine radiance for worshippers.
Gospel
Approved rendering: নুংঙাইবগী পাউ
Transliteration: nungngaibagi pao
Doctrine: Gospel
নুংঙাইবগী পাউ (‘joyful/good news’) is a plain descriptive rendering. Must be distinguished from general festival announcements, particularly during the Vaishnava festival calendar (e.g. Ras Lila performances, Krishna Janmashtami), which also carry celebratory ‘good news’ framing of a different kind.
Holy
Approved rendering: অসেংবা
Transliteration: asengba
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: শেংবা (physically clean, ritual-purity sense only)
অসেংবা conveys moral purity and being set apart for God. শেংবা must be reserved for physical/ritual cleanliness, distinct from the ritual purity preparations undertaken before Lai Haraoba or Vaishnava temple worship.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: থাজবগী ইনবা
Transliteration: thajabagi inba
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: ভক্তিগী সেবা (devotional service performed out of bhakti, a works-based misreading)
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience that flows from faith, not সেবা (ritual devotional service) performed to build up bhakti standing with Krishna.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপুগী পাংথোক-থেংনবা
Transliteration: Tengban Mapugi pangthok-thengnaba
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: শক্তি (associated with the ritual/oracular power of a maibi in Lai Haraoba trance, avoid as the primary term)
A descriptive compound for God’s saving power is preferred; শক্তি carries strong association with maibi trance-power and, in the Vaishnava-Shakta overlap found elsewhere in the region, goddess-power, neither of which should be casually borrowed for Romans 1:16.
Providence
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপুগী থৌরাং
Transliteration: Tengban Mapugi thourang
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: ৱাইফম (fate, never use)
God’s personal, purposive care; never ৱাইফম (fate). Romans 8:28 is specifically vulnerable to being reheard as impersonal-fate assurance rather than a relational promise.
Saints
Approved rendering: অসেংবা মীওই
Transliteration: asengba miwoi
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: গোসাঞি/বৈষ্ণব (a Vaishnava renunciant devotee title, never use for the corporate biblical sense)
গোসাঞি names a Vaishnava religious specialist or renunciant devotee; using it would wrongly narrow Romans 1:7’s corporate address to all believers into a specialist devotional class.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: অসেংবা ওইহনবা
Transliteration: asengba oihanba
Doctrine: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, distinct from ritual purification before Lai Haraoba or Vaishnava temple worship.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: দাউদগী চা-চাহি
Transliteration: Daudgi cha-chahi
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; a descriptive phrase conveying physical lineage, which can resonate with the Meitei cultural emphasis on royal and clan (yumnak) descent lines, but requires explicit Old Testament covenant background to avoid being read as merely a genealogical claim of the Pakhangba-lineage type.
Sin
Approved rendering: পাপ
Transliteration: pap
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
পাপ (a term shared broadly across regional Indic religious vocabulary) conveys moral transgression before a personal God. Must be distinguished from ritual offenses addressed through Lai Haraoba purification rites or Vaishnava atonement rituals (prayaschitta).
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: তবিদগী থাবিরকপা
Transliteration: tabidagi thabirakpa
Doctrine: Apostleship
A descriptive phrase (‘one who has been sent’) conveys authorized, commissioned ministry. Confirm against the BSI Manipuri Bible, which may have a more settled single-word rendering.
Church
Approved rendering: কলিসিয়া
Transliteration: kalisiya
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: মন্দির (a Vaishnava temple, never use), উমাং লাই থাবা (an Umang Lai sacred grove worship site, never use)
কলিসিয়া (transliterated) refers to the gathered assembly of believers. Must remain clearly distinct from both মন্দির (Vaishnava temple) and the Umang Lai sacred grove, the two most prominent existing worship-site categories in Meitei religious geography.
David
Approved rendering: দাউদ
Transliteration: Daud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper-name transliteration, following existing Manipuri Bible-translation convention.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: অতোপ্পা ফুরুপ
Transliteration: atoppa phurup
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Non-Jewish peoples; a descriptive rendering built on ফুরুপ (clan/community), a category with real weight in Meitei social organization, so use with awareness that ‘other peoples’ language can resonate with existing clan-identity categories.
Intercession
Approved rendering: মখোয়গী মফমদা হায়জবা
Transliteration: makhoigi mafamda haijaba
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Prayer/petition made on behalf of others (Romans 8:26-27); must be kept distinct from petitions traditionally carried to the Umang Lai through a maibi or maiba on a community’s behalf.
Israel
Approved rendering: ইস্রায়েল
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; standard transliteration.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: তেংবাং মপুগী লৈপাক
Transliteration: Tengban Mapugi leipak
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign; should be distinguished from the historic Meitei kingship tradition itself, in which the king (ningthou) was understood as descended from the divine serpent-ancestor Pakhangba, a distinctly local royal-divine-lineage concept.
Law
Approved rendering: য়াথাং
Transliteration: yathang
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: ধর্ম (avoid the Hindu-derived religious-duty sense absorbed through Vaishnavization)
য়াথাং (rule/law/command) refers to the Mosaic Law/Torah in this curriculum. Never use ধর্ম, given its association with the Vaishnava religious-duty system introduced after the 18th-century royal conversion.
Mission
Approved rendering: পাউ সন্দোকপগী থৌদাং
Transliteration: pao sandokpagi thoudang
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
‘The task of spreading the news.’ Given the history of American Baptist mission work in the Manipur hills (among neighboring Naga and Kuki-Zo communities) becoming entangled in regional memory with colonial-era administration and, more recently, with sensitive inter-community relations within Manipur, frame evangelism as the church’s own calling rather than a foreign or ethnically-coded project.
Peace
Approved rendering: ইনগবা
Transliteration: ingba
Doctrine: Peace with God
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not the meditative devotional calm sought through bhakti practice or the harmony traditionally maintained with the Umang Lai through Lai Haraoba observance.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: থাওয়াইগী খুদোল
Transliteration: thawaigi khudol
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: শক্তি (a maibi priestess’s ritual/oracular power during Lai Haraoba trance, avoid as a substitute)
থাওয়াইগী খুদোল (‘gift of the Spirit’) must be kept distinct from the ritual/oracular power attributed to a maibi in Lai Haraoba trance possession. Spirit-given gifts serve the church; they are not possession-derived oracular abilities.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: থাওয়াই পীবা
Transliteration: thawai piba
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use for encouragement/building up; use হায়জবা (entreaty/pleading) for beseeching contexts.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: লোইনবা
Transliteration: loinaba
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Shared participation in Christ, conveying togetherness/companionship; confirm regional naturalness with native speakers given limited established Manipuri Christian devotional vocabulary for this specific sense.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: ফোংদোকপা ৱারোল
Transliteration: phongdokpa warol
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration; distinct from a maibi’s trance utterances during Lai Haraoba.
Prophet
Approved rendering: তোঙান তোঙানবা ফোংদোকপা
Transliteration: tongan tonganba phongdokpa
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: মৈবা (a traditional Sanamahi ritual specialist/healer, never use)
God’s spokesperson; must not be confused with মৈবা, the male ritual specialist and healer recognized in traditional Sanamahi religious practice, or with a মৈবী (maibi) priestess’s oracular role.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: থাগৎচরি
Transliteration: thagatchari
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term for gratitude/thanks. No significant doctrinal risk.
Referenced passages