Sacred Books of the Hindus

Lesson 57 noticed something small: the dictionary's third sense of sampradāya, "sect", is cited not to any Sanskrit text but to Monier-Williams's own Victorian survey. This lesson follows that thread, because it leads to the largest unexamined word in the course.

The complete Monier-Williams entry reads: "hindu m. (fr. the Persian) a Hindu (more properly Hindū)."

One line, a Persian derivation, and no Sanskrit citation — in a dictionary that gives dharma and yajña columns of attested usage.

So this course ran the obvious check. Across the thirty-six Sanskrit texts in its corpus — Ṛgveda material, Manu, the Gītā, Upaniṣads, the dharmasūtras, the six schools' sūtras, Purāṇas, commentaries and an Āgama — the string "Hindu" occurs three times.