Sunday, February 4, 2018

Sanskrit Word in English: Pundit

The English word PUNDIT is from Sanskrit pandita, a scholar or learned person. It comes via Hindi payndit. You will now sometimes see the word spelled "pandit" in English, rather than the older spelling of "pundit." The word "pundit" is so commonly used in English that it has its own Wikipedia article.

There is a Brahmin community known as the Kashmiri Pandits; the photograph below shows some Kashmiri Pandits, circa 1895.