Talk:Queen mother

In re "Queen Mother" in India

Rajmata [sic] is currently translated in the article as "Mother of the State", with the justification that 'Raj' means 'State'. However, the technical term for state/kingdom is actually 'Rajya'. Furthermore, the actual term for the King (or, rarely, if at all, Queen) Mother is "Rajamata" [IPA: raːdʑɐmaːtaː](note the missing 'a' in the term in the article). This is technically from the same word in Sanskrit, which itself is a Sanskrit compound "राज्ञः माता या सा राजमाता।" (Translation: "She who is the King's mother is the King-mother". The translation here has the appearance of stating the obvious, but it gramatically defines the compound word in terms of the simple words whose place and meaning the compound word takes).

Basically, I think that the translation "Mother of the State" is inaccurate, with the inaccuracy being caused by the inaccurate term 'Raj' [IPA: raːdʑ] inaccurately being confused with 'State' due to lack of accurate Sanskrit transliteration of the word 'Raja' [IPA: raːdʑɐ] in "Rajamata" in the first place. The accurate term is, thus, "Rajamata", and the accurate translation is "King-Mother". Viv73 (talk) 05:35, 25 February 2022 (UTC)