Suratrana (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Suratrāṇa, सुरत्राण) is a Sanskrit word that has been interpreted to mean either "protector of gods", or a transliteration of the Islamic word "

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

" into Sanskrit. The term consists of two words "

sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...

" (सुर) meaning "deva, gods, deity", and ''trana'' (त्राण) meaning "protect, preserve, defend". Suratrana is found in Indian texts and inscriptions, its interpretation is controversial particularly when the context relates to the post 12th-century medieval period of Hindu-Muslim interaction during

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

and

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. For example, the word is found in a long Sanskrit stone inscription found at a temple at

Hampi Hampi or Hampe, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Hampi town, Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th&n ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

and dated to 1344 CE. The

Nāgarī script The Nāgarī script or Northern Nagari of Kashi is the ancestor of Devanagari, Nandinagari and other variants, and was first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.Kathleen Kuiper (2 ...

inscription includes the term ''Hinduraya Suratrana'', which Benjamin Lewis Rice translates as "the Suratrana of Hindu Rayas". The term ''Hindu raya suratrana'' is also seen in some stone inscriptions found in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, the earliest dated to about 1352 CE. Some scholars have interpreted this to mean "the Sultan among Hindu kings" and state this to be an evidence of Islamic political traditions being adopted by Hindu kings, as well as that Indian kingdoms recognized their religious identity of being

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

by early 14th century. Others interpret the term ''Hinduraya Suratrana'' to mean "protectors of the gods of (or among) the Hindu kings". A few other inscriptions in South India use the word ''Suratrana'', sometimes as part of the term ''Hinduraya Suratrana'', and sometimes in modified form. For example, the Akkalapundi Grant inscription of 1368 CE for Kapaya Nayaka of Warangal who fought the Delhi Sultanate armies, refers to the Nayaka as ''Andhrasuratranah'' (Andhra-Suratranah, or the Suratranah of the Andhra). A related term ''Hinduravu Suradhani'' (

: Hindurāvu Suradhāni) is found in an Ongole inscription for Sariyapati Timmareddi of Andhra region, and is dated to 1482 CE. According to Wagoner, both Suratrana and Suradhani are

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

s of Sultan. ''Suradhani'' found in ''Hindurāvu Suradhāni'' term is also a composite of two words, "Sura" and "Dhani", with ''Dhani'' meaning "possessor, housing, virtuous keeper". The term ''Suratrana'' appears in a Warangal inscription dated to about 1570 CE, for Aravidu king Tirumala I, as ''Urigola Suratranah'' meaning the "Suratranah of Urigola" or "Suratranah of Warangal". Wagoner interprets it as "Sultan of Warangal".

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{{reflist Sanskrit words and phrases Sultans

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