13 — Glossary

Reference for terms that show up in these docs and in the brand voice. Each entry has a short definition, and where useful, the language of origin and the way the term is used on the platform.

A

A2 milk. Milk from cows with the A2A2 beta-casein genotype, common in Indian breeds (Malnad Gidda, Hallikar, Gir). Promoted on the platform as the default — we test the herd, not the breed.

Agnihotra. A Vedic fire offering performed at sunrise and sunset in a copper pyramid with cow-dung cakes, ghee, rice, and samidhas. We treat it as an integrated atmospheric and pest-management practice, not a panacea or a marketing ritual. See 10_FARM_OPERATIONS.md §2.

Amaranth. Amaranthus spp. A leafy / grain crop. Both chaulai greens and grain amaranth are grown on the seed farm; greens appear in the subscriber basket in kharif and summer.

Apis cerana indica. The Indian hive bee. The seed-farm apiary hosts this species, not the European Apis mellifera. More disease- resistant, less honey per hive, but better suited to local florals.

B

Bamboo Cafe. Jayapal's organic cafe at Lokkanahalli. Pre-existed AgriShala. Anchors the platform's on-site kitchen; in Phase 3 it becomes the in-house kitchen for value-addition SKUs.

Beejamrutha. A seed-coating solution (cow-dung + cow-urine + lime

• water) used before sowing. Part of the bio-fertilizer stack in

10_FARM_OPERATIONS.md §3.

BRT Tiger Reserve. Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, ~ 1,300 km² of dry-deciduous forest at the meeting of the Western and Eastern Ghats. The seed farm sits on its edge.

C

Chamundihill. A small hill shrine near Mysore often visited by the BRT-edge farmers. We do not run rituals here — we may visit as a guest excursion (Phase 2). Mentioned here because it often comes up in conversation around the seed farm.

Crop phase. A tag on PhotoUpdate: sow / grow / harvest / pack. Defined in 07_DATA_MODEL.md.

Community Marketplace. A small marketplace that the platform hosts on behalf of the surrounding indigenous community — Soliga-led at Lokkanahalli. Adjacent to Sustenance, not part of it. The community owns pricing and the audit; the platform keeps the rails and charges a small fee. See 01_VISION.md §3a, 03_SEED_FARM.md §5, 04_BUSINESS_MODEL.md §4a. Not the same thing as the "no marketplace" rule, which is about our own retail.

D

Dapoli. Not used here. We mention this only to say: don't confuse with the Dapoli Nashik method of Homa farming in Maharashtra — the seed farm's approach is informed by, but not a copy of, those farms.

F

Foxtail millet. Setaria italica. A small millet, kharif-grown in Z3. Used in 04_BUSINESS_MODEL.md retail catalogue.

G

Gau Shala. Literally cow-shelter. In the AgriShala context it is the cow-integration practice: the herd (5 animals, see 10_FARM_OPERATIONS.md §1) is the centre of the nutrient cycle (dung

• urine + milk + bull-power).

Gobar. Cow-dung. The base of practically every bio-fertilizer on the farm (compost, gobar slurry, Agnihotra cakes, Jeevamrutha).

H

Hallikar. A South-Indian draught cattle breed, native to Karnataka. One of two breed candidates for the herd (alongside Malnad Gidda); decision tracked as Q-14.

Homa. A general Sanskrit word for fire offering. We use it as an umbrella term for Agnihotra and the supporting fire practices. Always with a lowercase h in copy.

Horsegram. Macrotyloma uniflorum. A hardy pulse, rabi-grown in Z3; nutrition-dense and drought-tolerant.

J

Jeevamrutha. A fermented soil-drench made from cow-dung, cow-urine, jaggery, pulse flour, and a handful of soil. Applied every two weeks in the growing season.

Jenumutti. A small hill shrine in the BRT valley, visible from the seed farm. An excursion anchor; we don't farm there.

Jowar. Sorghum bicolor. A rabi-grown millet, the second pillar of Z3 after ragi.

K

Kharif. The south-west monsoon cropping season (roughly Jun–Sep). The platform's primary sowing season. Distinguished from rabi (Oct–Jan) and zaid (Feb–May, summer).

KVK. Krishi Vigyan Kendra — the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's district-level farm-science centres. We send soil samples to the nearest KVK for YieldRecord audits (Phase 3).

L

Lokkanahalli. The village where the seed farm sits. On the edge of the BRT Tiger Reserve, ~3.5 hours by road from Bengaluru. Tagged in all external comms as the platform's address.

M

Malnad Gidda. A small, hardy dwarf-cattle breed native to the Malnad region of Karnataka. Herd-breed candidate; see Q-14.

Moringa / drumstick. Moringa oleifera. A perennial vegetable tree whose pods and leaves appear in the subscriber basket in summer.

P

Panchagavya. A fermented foliar spray made from five cow products (dung, urine, milk, curd, ghee) plus jaggery, banana, and coconut water. Applied at 3% dilution.

Polytunnel. A simple plastic-clad tunnel used for nursery beds in the monsoon. We do not invest in them in Phase 1 — natural shade cloth is enough.

Q

Q-NN. Marker for items in 14_OPEN_QUESTIONS.md. Every Q-NN in the docs refers back to that single list.

R

Rabi. The post-monsoon winter cropping season (Oct–Jan). The second sowing season of the year.

Ragi. Eleusine coracana. Finger millet. The identity crop of the seed farm, kharif-grown in Z3. The retail-SKU flagship.

S

Samidha. A specific dried twig (often palasha / butea / shami) used as fuel in the Agnihotra offering. Stocked once a year.

Sesbania. Sesbania grandiflora / sesban. A fast-growing nitrogen-fixing fodder tree, planted on the Z4 perimeter.

Shami. Not used. Mentioned here to disambiguate from another Homa-school's terminology. Our samidhas are sourced by one named supplier — see 10_FARM_OPERATIONS.md §2.

Soliga. A Soliga Adivasi community that has farmed the BRT landscape for centuries. The seed farm is a partner, not a patron: we learn from them; we pay fair rates; we hire from the surrounding villages whenever possible.

T

Tamarind. Tamarindus indica. A long-cycle native tree that appears as both a shade element in Z10 and a flavour on the platform (retail SKU: tamarind pickle in Phase 3).

Tibetan settlement. A small Tibetan diaspora community living near the seed farm. An excursion anchor (FR-2.3). Not a sales target.

Toor / Tur / Arhar. Cajanus cajan. A pigeon-pea pulse, kharif-grown in Z3; the second-most important pulse after horsegram.

U

ULID. Universally Lexicographically Sortable Identifier. We use ULIDs as primary keys throughout 07_DATA_MODEL.md. They are sortable strings and a small advantage over UUIDs.

V

Vertical integration. The practice of taking the raw produce all the way to a finished retail SKU (ghee from milk, soap from milk, pickles from raw mango). Pillar 3 of the platform.

W

Wendell Berry. Reference author. The voice rulebook in 08_CONTENT_STRATEGY.md is partly modelled on his essays — concrete, place-rooted, suspicious of convenience.

Y

YieldRecord. A Phase-3 entity (07_DATA_MODEL.md) tracking actual weekly harvest weight per zone + crop. Used for the yearly soil report and for capacity re-planning.

Z

Z1 … Z10. The ten zone IDs in 11_FARM_ZONING.md. Used as literal Zone.id strings in the data model. Zones are not "rows"; they are named and bounded patches of land.

Zaid. The summer cropping season (Feb–May). The third (and smallest) sowing window of the year.