N ot e on T r a n s l i t e r a t i on

All Indian terms are systematically transliterated with diacritics and itali- cized. The proper names of Hindu deities, offices, and institutions, how- ever, appear with diacritics only on first appearance and thereafter their spellings are adjusted in the usual way (e.g., Shiva for S´iva). Many Tamil terms in this book are Tamilized Sanskrit and are transliterated accordingly, instead of from the pure Tamil forms that only specialists would recognize (e.g., agraha¯ram, not akkiraka¯ram). Sanskrit religious terms and names are also transliterated from their more familiar Sanskrit forms, rather than their Tamil ones (e.g., dars´ana, not taricanam; S´iva, not Civan). A similar conven- ¯ ¯ tion is followed for revenue terms of Persian or Arabic origin (e.g., mira¯sida¯r, not mira¯cuta¯r). Personal names, caste names, and geographical and histori- cal names, however, are spelled in their conventional, English forms. In many cases, there are several conventional forms, so that one has had to be selected—normally the commonest or most accurate transliteration. “Brahman” is preferred over “Brahmin”; for the Tamil Brahman honorifics, “Aiyar” and “Aiyangar” are preferred over variants such as “Ayyar,” “Iyer,” “Ayyangar,” “Iyengar,” etc. In general, though, personal names are spelled as individuals (apparently) preferred, so that when an honorific is part of a man’s personal name, the form he used is retained. For geographical names, the main difficulty is that many towns, cities, states, districts, etc., have been renamed since Independence. Thus, for example, the Tamil-speaking region of the Madras Presidency became Madras state after Independence and was renamed Tamilnadu (Tamil Nadu) in 1969; the city of Madras was renamed Chennai in 1996. In general, names of places appropriate to the historical context are used, but alternative names are indicated where necessary. Map 1. south India