Suratrana (

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

: 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 (; ', ) 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 came to be use ...

" into Sanskrit. The term consists of two words "

sura A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' ( al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while the ...

" (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 or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

and

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

. 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 the town of Hampi in Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi predates the Vijayanagara Empire; it is menti ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

and dated to 1344 CE. The

Nāgarī script The Nāgarī script 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 (2010), The Culture of India, New ...

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 (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, 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 (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

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 → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , 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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