GLOSSARY
Every word we use, explained once
Forty words or fewer per term, in plain language. If a word in any guide sends you here, this is where it is defined — and where to read more about it.
The closing act of a puja. A lit lamp is circled in front of the deity while a song is sung, and the flame is then offered to everyone present.
Bathing the deity — water, milk, honey or panchamrit poured over an idol or Shivalinga while mantras are recited.
A lamp kept continuously lit through an observance, most often across the nine nights of Navratri. Relight it if it goes out; nothing is void.
Unbroken rice grains, usually mixed with a little turmeric or kumkum. Offered in almost every puja. The point is that the grains are whole.
The leaf offered to Shiva, in threes on one stem. Also called bel patra. Offered smooth side down by widespread practice.
The four monsoon months from Devshayani to Devutthana Ekadashi. Weddings and some new undertakings are traditionally deferred through this period.
What is offered to a purohit after a ritual. Traditionally given according to means and not fixed as a fee.
The installation of the kalash on the first day of Navratri, performed in the morning while Pratipada prevails and before Hindu midday.
A brass or copper pot filled with water, topped with mango leaves and a coconut. It stands for the presence invited into the space.
A window of time considered suitable for a ritual, calculated from the panchang. A recommendation, not a deadline — a puja done later is still complete.
One of twenty-seven segments of the sky through which the Moon moves. One of the five limbs the panchang tracks each day.
Half a lunar month. Shukla is the waxing half, Krishna the waning half. Every festival date names one.
Five ingredients mixed for abhishek and prasad — milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar. Made fresh, distributed after.
Breaking a fast, within a stated window on the morning after. For Ekadashi it must fall after sunrise and before Dwadashi ends.
The resolve stated at the start of a vrat or puja — what you are doing, and for whom. Said aloud or silently, in any language.
A period before and during an eclipse in which some activities are set aside. It applies only where the eclipse is actually visible.
The lunar day, and the thing that fixes almost every festival date. A tithi can start and end at any hour, which is why dates shift each year.
A vow kept for a day. Fasting is often part of it and is rarely the whole of it — the vow is the observance, the food rule is one expression.
Tell us the word and where you saw it. Terms people actually search for get written first — that is how this list grows.
A term is defined here once. Every guide that uses it links to this entry rather than repeating a definition — so when a definition improves, it improves everywhere at once.
Entries carry no classification tag and no confidence score. A definition is not a ritual-authority claim. Where a word carries real weight — bilva, sankalp, tapasya — the entry points at the Dharmic Concept that does the sourcing.
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