Glossary

• sahib

  lord or master

  also a generic honourific conveying the respect and authority due to the addressee; sometimes spelled saheb

• sahukar

  moneylender

• sal

  a species of tree

  corresponds to the scientific name shorea robusta; source of timber

• salami

  fee

• sanad

  generically, a document

• sarih

  manumitted slave

  Formerly enslaved persons in Zanzibar used this term together with the name of their former master in legal deeds.

• sarkar

  territorial division, larger than district; generic term for a sovereign or government

  Mughal term

• sarup

  the earring worn by the nath yogis

  sometimes used as an invocative or honorific word

• sethi

  merchant, banker

• sethi-giri

  holding the office of sethiya

• sethiya

  head of a body of merchants and superintendent of a marketplace

• shahna

  representative or servant of the tax collector

• shariʿa

  Islamic law

• sheesham

  a type of tree, North Indian rosewood

  species D. Sissoo, a cultivated tree used for furniture-making and fuel

• sheikh

  Muslim religious leader, saint

• sher

  a measure of weight

  also refers to deductions made by revenue officials from grain paid as tax-in-kind to government

• shiqdar

  revenue officer

• Shri Huzur

  honoured lord

  used to refer to a ruler and to his court or establishment

• shrimant

  lord, the illustrious

• Shrinathji

  a form of the Hindu deity Krishna

  Shrinathji is closely associated with the ruling family of Mewar.

• Shuhur

  Southern Indian solar calendar

• sih-bandi

  revenue allocation for maintaining soldiers

• siyaha huzur

  a register of daily proceedings of a royal court

• siyaq

  a Perso-Arabic accounting shorthand that uses cryptic symbols to represent numbers

• suba

  province

  Mughal term

• subadar

  provincial governor

• sudi

  light half of the lunar month

  when the moon is waxing