Indian honorifics
Indian honorifics are honorific titles or appendices to names used in the Indian subcontinent, covering formal and informal social, commercial, and religious relationships. These may take the form of prefixes, suffixes or replacements.
Native honorifics
Honorifics with native/indigenous Hindu-Buddhist origin.Hindu-Sikh honorifics
List of titles
- Abhyasi
- Acharya
- Aasaan
- Appa - title given to Lingayat and Maratha Kings meaning "head" or "father".
- Ayya
- Baba
- Babu
- Bhagavan
- Bhagat
- Bhai
- Chhatrapati
- Chakravarti, Chakraborty
- Chettiar, suffix denoting a man's wealth
- Chitnis one of the most important and highest-ranking ministers in a court.
- Choudhury
- Chempakaraman
- Das, a common surname on the Indian subcontinent which has also been applied as a title, signifying "devotee" or "votary" ; also, Dasa
- Devi
- Deshmukh, Maratha title given to "Head of State".
- Dvija
- Gain or Gayen
- Goaysain
- Guru
- Jagadguru
- Jagirdar
- Kothari
- Kshatriya Kulavantas, Maratha title given to "Kshatriya Family".
- Kumari
- Kunwar, Kumar
- Mahacharya — an honorific spiritual title meaning "great teacher", used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
- Mahamandaleshwar
- Mahant
- Maharaj, Maharaja, Maharajadhiraj
- Mahātmā
- Maharani
- Maharishi, Maharshi
- Mahayogi, Mahayogini
- Mankari
- Mantrik
- Melshanthi
- Menon
- Muni
- Naidu
- Naicker
- Nayak
- Pandit
- Patil, Maratha title given to "Head of Village" & "Kshatriya Noble Family".
- Patlin, Maratha Title given to "Wife of Patil Saheb & Kshatrani".
- Paramahamsa
- Paramguru
- Potdar
- Prabhu
- Pujari
- Raj
- Raje, Raidu, Raja, Rai/Ray, Rana, Rao, Rawal, Rawat
- Rajarshi
- Rajguru
- Rajkumar, Maharajkumar
- Rajkumari, Maharajkumari
- Rani
- Reddy
- Rishi
- Rao
- Rishi Mudgal
- Sādhaka
- Sadhu
- Sain, Saeen
- Samanta
- Samrat
- Sannyasin
- Sardar
- Sarpatil
- Satguru, Sadguru
- Sawai
- Singh
- Sethi, Sheth, suffixes denoting a man's wealth
- Shankaracharya
- Shaunaka
- Shishya
- Sri Shri, Shree
- Shrimati, Maratha title given to "Rich or Noble Person".
- Swami
- Thakur
- Thiru or Thirumathi
- Yogi, Yogini
- Yuvraj
- Veer
Secular profession-specific honorifics
- Lambardar
- Patwari
- Pandit
- Zamindar
- Ghatwal
- Mulraiyat
- Pradhan
- Jagirdar
- Mustajir
- Zaildar
- Talukdar
- Thikadars
Influence on other cultures
With the expansion of Indosphere cultural influence of Greater India, through transmission of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism leading to Indianization of Southeast Asia with non-Indian southeast Asian native Indianized kingdoms adopting Sanskritization of their languages and titles as well as ongoing historic expansion of Indian diaspora has resulted in many overseas places having Indianised names, architecture, martial arts, music and dance, clothing, and cuisine.Please help expand the following partial list of Indian influenced honorifics:
- Burmese honorifics and Burmese Buddhist titles
- Cambodia honorifics
- Cham honorifics
- Filipino styles and honorifics
- Indonesian honorifics
- Khmer honorifics
- Lao honorifics
- Malay styles and titles
- Sinhala honorifics
- Thai royal ranks and titles
- Tamil honorifics
Maratha honorifics
Associated with the Maratha Kingdom or general Marathi-speaking population.Sikh honorific
Nepali (Gorkhali) honorifics
Associated with the Khas Kings of Nepal, esp. the Shah dynasty of the Kingdom of Gorkha.- Kaji
- Mukthiyar
- Jangi Lat
- Khazanchi
- Maharajdhiraj
- Maharathi
- Nayab
- Rajpratinidhi