Because I'm typing letters, I tend to think of the output as letters, even though I know they are really (a garland of) syllables.

Interesting, I use pinyin to enter Chinese characters, but they always seem like characters to me. Actually, they seem like kanji to me which is the Japanese term (borrowed from Chinese qian-zí) because I studied Japanese first. The image of rAjya was really quite beautiful.

I was also attached to the "four-letter word" idea for Raj, since the Indians I know who lived under the Raj tend to think of it in those terms.

Ah, I can be dense sometimes. I was totally oblivious to your other meaning. BTW, how's your Hindi learning coming?