An Indian Glossary : Consisting of Some Thousand Words and Terms Commonly Used in the East Indies

Produced in 1800 by a lieutenant of the East India Company for newcomers to India, this was the first glossary of Indian terms widely used by the English in daily life and administrative situations. While promoting communication, it was not designed for the formal study of Indian languages.

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.