An Indian Glossary

An Indian Glossary Synopsis

T. T. Roberts, an East India Company lieutenant attached to a native regiment, published this glossary in 1800 to assist those newly arrived in India. Roberts was one of the first to produce such a guide to Indian terms which had entered into common use among the English in India, rather than materials to help Europeans to learn Indian languages properly, as the East India Company's Fort William College in Calcutta, founded in the same year, intended. English did not become the dominant language of administration until the 1830s, and even then many Indian and Persian words continued to be widely used. Arranged alphabetically, Roberts' glossary contains over one thousand entries, from personal names and titles to terms relating to food, drink, trade, law and religion. It is a valuable source of information on colonial Indian history, geography and society, with explanations of names, places, and the status of different castes.