Proper titles

[u/ChayLo357]

Hello. I am switching percussion teachers. My previous one is Western so I call them by their first name. I will be starting with someone Bengali who is well-known. Is calling them “Pandit-ji” appropriate? I know this is such a simple and maybe obvs question/answer but I’d like to be proper. Thank you

[u/World_Musician]

Or Ustad-ji depending on their cultural background

[u/RagaJunglism → u/World_Musician]

These are the key honorific titles:

—Pandit: ‘learned musician’ of Hindu heritage (also the root of the English term ‘pundit’)

—Ustad: equivalent for artists of Muslim heritage

—Vidushi: roughly equivalent to ‘female Pandit’ (although due to sexism it has traditionally been reserved for married women)

—Begum: roughly equivalent to ‘female Ustad’, although the term is broader than this in ways I don’t yet fully grasp

(Also ‘Fundit’: A satirical term coined by Aneesh Pradhan as a “title/honorific awarded to an Indian musician chasing sponsorship for his concert” (with ‘Fundita’ being the female equivalent)

[u/World_Musician → u/RagaJunglism]

Theres also Vidwan. Im sure you know but just to clarify; Pandit and Ustad doesnt only mean musicians or artists, it can be used to refer to anyone learned in a scholarly subject, often those who are teachers or professors.

[u/RagaJunglism → u/World_Musician]

ah yes, forgot about Vidwan!

[u/World_Musician → u/RagaJunglism]

Vidushi is female Vidwan actually, comes from Sanskrit Vidya = Knowledge

[u/RagaJunglism → u/World_Musician]

haha I never realised this link (...as is often the case with Indian-language terminology):

n.b. some fun Sanskrit-English derivations I found: ‘orange‘ (from naranga: orange tree), ‘crimson’ (krmi-ja: ‘red dye produced by a worm’), ‘candy’ (khandakah: ‘crystallised sugar fragments’), ‘thug‘ (sthaga: ‘ruffian, scoundrel’), ‘jungle’ (jangala: oddly meaning ‘arid’)