Term
|
Definition
one's caste or class/position in society
also means "colour", which refers not to racial characteristics, but to a system of colour symbolism reflecting the social hierarchy as well as qualities (guna) which are present to a varying degree in all things.
Brahmans = white (purity/lightness)
Ksatriyas = red (passion/energy)
Vaisyas = yellow (earth)
Sudras = black (darkness/intertia) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
one's stage in life/ 4 stages of the Vedic system.
Serve as codifications of different elements present in vedic society and an attempt to integrate them into a coherent system.
The four stages are: celibate student (brahmacayra), householder (grhasta), hermit/forest dweller (vanaprasha), and renouncer (samnyasa). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The combining of two concerns that are particularly dominate in the Dharma sutras and sastras: one's obligation (dharma) with regard to one's position in society, and obligation with regard to one's stage in life (asrama).
Fufillment of these obligations was a sign on brahmanical orthopraxy and part of an essentialist definition of a Hindu.
Some Hindu traditions reject this model, it has still had substantial influence. For example, tantric traditions have defined themselves against this brahmanical norm. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The term jati ("birth") refers to the sections of Hindu society which we know as castes.
Also refers to all categories of beings. Insects, plants, and domestic animals are all jatis suggesting that the difference between human jatis is as great as that between different animal species.
Members of jati share the same bodily substance which can be exchanged in transactions thus individuals are not autonomous.
Order of jatis not as stable as varnas, as rank can shift between regions. traditional view is that the jati represent a proliferation of social groups from varna system.
You can be in a lower caste and have more power than someone in a higher class. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1) arranged by hierarchical structure with Brahmans at top and Untouchables at the bottom. Between this can vary.
2)based on polarity between purity and pollution with Brahmans being most pure and Untouchables most impure
3) The caste of the individual is inalienable; it is a property of the body that cannot be removed (except through initiation within some traditions)
4) There are strict rules of caste endogamy and commensality. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
"Twice born"
Refers to the top three classes of vedic society (brahmans, warriors, and commoners)
Called this because boys underwent an initiation (upanayana).
Only the twice born classes were allowed to hear the Veda and eventually only Brahmans were allowed to be its guardians, learning and reciting it during rituals). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Initiation for boys in the twice born (dvija) classes of Vedic society.
Serves as a right of passage which gives males access to being full members of society who can marry and perpetuate the ritual traditions.
This rite separates the twice born from the fourth estate (the serfs) and clearly marks the boundary between those who have access to the vedic tradition and those who do not. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
"Born of god".
Refers to the Untouchables.
This name was bestowed upon them by Ghandi who wanted to alleviate their plight through nonviolence and holding fast to the truth.
They call themselves dalits - "those crushed underfoot".
In India, the idea of untouchability has been officially abolished, yet in practice the institution remains stubbornly intransigent |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Refers to the celibate student stage of life, a traditional period after the high caste initiation (upanayana) when a boy would go to the home of his teacher (guru) to learn the Veda.
The idea behind this tradition is that to remain celibate is to be unpolluted by sex, and celibacy redirects sexual power contained in semen to a spiritual ends as it is eventually stored in the head.
After this phase the student would undergo a homecoming ritual and be married and enter the householder's life. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Refers to the "householder" stage of asrama. In the dharmasutras this is the preferred norm of life, and most adults live and die in this stage. Thus this stage seems to support the other three.
Members of this asrama have the duty to perform sacrifices and produce sons (in partial fulfillment of his debts to orthodox society).
Also functions as the complementary opposite of the renouncer tradition. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Refers to the hermit/forest dweller stage which Manu claims a man should undertake when he is wrinkled and grey.
In this stage, man (and maybe his wife) reitre from householder's duties to live an ascetic life in the forest and to devote himself to ritual.
He is not a complete renouncer (doesn't give up fire for cooking or sacrificial fires) yet still eat only certain kinds of food and spend time seeking to generate inner heat (tapas).
Significant difference between this stage and renouncer is use of fire. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Refers to the renouncer stage of asrama theory.
Must belong to one of the upper three varnas.
Seeks to relinquish fire, and under the direction of a Brahman priest, internalize the fire to become a continuous internalized sacrifice.
This process marks a break with the material world, as the renouncer wants to quiet the senses and become independent from society.
The renouncer receives a new name and must beg in order to sustain himself. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
"reincarnation"
In the context of karma theory, the potentially endless cycle of suffering and rebirth to which the embodied individual is subject, unless they can achieve mokṣa. By extension, it also refers to the world as normally experienced |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The results of action that are reaped in future lives.
Built up over a period of innumerable lifetimes.
Origin of this doctrine is obscure, possible that it entered through the renouncer tradition.
attempts to account for the origins and nature of an individual's mortal existence and suffering in the light of his or her action
At its simplest, the word ‘karma(n)’ signifies an action, and in the Brahmanical period, the most conceptually significant action was that performed by the sacrificer.
what counts as significant action, and its binding or, indeed, liberating effects—has been differently conceptualized by different Hindu traditions. This variety of frequently conflicting attitudes is evident in the Epics, the Purāṇas, and in Dharmaśāstra |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
suffering’, ‘ the unsatisfactory nature of life’, ‘ the corollary of impermanence’
Escape from this can be achieved through the minimizing of action and through spiritual knowledge.
Renouncing action done through asceticism (tapas) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
practices of heat generating austerity
Associated with yoga and the idea of inner focus/heat.
Technique of altering consciousness or withdrawing consciousness from the world of the senses in order to experience total world transcendence. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
"women's duty".
Most often this involves subjugation to male authority.
At its most general, received Brahmanical views about how a woman should live her life and behave towards the rest of society in accordance with dharma
More specifically, the compound refers to those (very limited) portions of Dharmaśāstra which prescribe the appropriate behaviour for a woman in accordance with her varṇa, and her current station in life. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The ruler of a large kingdom
More important as a moral and ritual source that in practical concerns of running a region.
Politically segmentary nature of Hindu kingdom was ritually united in figure of the king.
Had to act in accordance with dharma or else kingdom would suffer
Kings body represents social body = intermediary between eternal law of dharma and worldly manifestations of justice administered by courts |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Group of ascetics who grew up between 9th and 6th centuries BCE.
Known as "strivers" who seek liberation through the efforts of their austerity.
They are homeless, depend on alms for food, and minimize their ownership of possessions.
Buddhism originated within this group.
Offered a view of human condition that eventually became incorporated into Brahman householder. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A path of knowledge laid out in the Gita.
Refers to the knowledge of the absolute (brahman), but also refers to the Samkhya system of discriminating the various constituents of the cosmos.
Complements the paths of action and devotion found in the Gita. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Refers to methods of mental training whose purpose is the cultivation of altered or higher states of consciousness which will cultivate in the blissful mystical experience of final liberation from the bonds of action and rebirth.
Supposed to lead to profound understanding into the nature of existence.
Maintains that consciousness can be maintained through focus on a single point and that transformation of conscious eradicates limiting mental constraints. Yoga is a discipline that facilitates this transformation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The final liberation mentioned in Manu that a Brahman attempt to attain.
Included in this liberation is freedom from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara), which also means to be free from the store of action (karma) built up over many lifetimes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a synonym of mokṣa (liberation), or the realization of brahman
the state of freedom from all desires and possessiveness as the ‘nirvāṇa of Brahman’. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The "end of the veda".
Group that defines themselves within the Vedic tradition as a reinterpretation of the ritual process and an elucidation of its inner meaning.
Term itself takes general sense of esoteric teaching.
Group continues the work of Brahmanas in interpreting the meaning of the srauta ritual.
Are concerned with contemplating deeper significance of the connections between srauta ritual and cosmos. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The most famous seed mantra (sacred word/phrase) that is identified with absolute reality (brahman).
It is regarded as the most sacred sound in the Veda, and seen as the sound of the absolute which manifests the cosmos, the essence of the Veda.
Used to help focus during meditation.
Mirrors cycle of creation, maintenance, and destruction.
Process of saying aum should be internatilized and the contemplated with various parts of the body.
A - creation - Brahma
U - maintain - Visnu
M - destruction - Siva |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The truth (satya) is the absolute (brahman) which is also the self (atman).
This is the single reality underlying the diversity of appearances, knowledge of which is the purpose of the ritual's internalization.
This knowledge can serve as a direct and immediate intuition experienced as joy or bliss. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In the Brahmanas, this term mean the power of the ritual, apart from which there is nothing more ancient or brighter.
In time, the process of abstraction occurred whereby brahman became a principle referring to only to the power of the ritual, but also the essence of the universe; the very being at the heart of all appearances.
Can also mean essence of self (atman) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A term used of brahman (neut.), as ultimate reality, from the earliest Upaniṣads onwards. In Advaita Vedānta it is combined with sat (‘being’),and cit (‘awareness, sentience, consciousness’) into saccidānanda, a single term conveying the spiritual and unitary character of the absolute. Consequently, according to this school, salvation is a state of pure bliss (ānanda). In theistic systems, ānanda is frequently listed as a quality of God (e.g. of Śiva). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
used in a wide variety of ways, perhaps most frequently to designate the living, breathing body; it is also sometimes equated with ‘prāṇa’ (‘breath’, ‘life-force’).
The understanding of ātman as the eternal, unchanging essence of the person developed out of an increasing concern in Brahmanical literature to establish the nature of the ‘real’ (what is not subject to death and change), and to distinguish it from the ‘unreal’ (what is impermanent and mutable), both in terms of the individual and of the universe at large.
Also refers to soul/self/little bit of Brahma that is in every sentient thing |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Sadhus = good men
Sadhvis = good women
Refers to renouncers who, when they are not wandering, have chosen to live a life along on the edges of society by the banks of sacred rivers or holy sites.
Develop their own spiritual practices for the purpose of liberation while living.
Some live in communities associated with larger Hindu tradition (particularly Siva and Visnu).
Some orders exist within vedic tradition while others operate outside of vedic orthodoxy. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the making of self’, ‘ I-maker’
Also refers to ego, which must be transcended if the true self's identity is to be experience. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
‘ sitting’, ‘ seat’, ‘ posture’
A name used to designate the postures assumed in yogic practice. Posture (āsana) is one of the aṣṭāṅgas, the eight limbs of (or aids to) yoga according to the classical, or rājayoga system expounded in Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra (2.29). Best known among the āsanas is the ‘lotus position’ (padmāsana), but there are many such postures; the essential thing is to assume a stable and easy posture as a prerequisite for the practice of prāṇāyāma, the control of the vital breath, and the eventual attainment of samādhi.
In the haṭha-yoga tradition, āsanas become ever more elaborate and physically taxing, as a means of perfecting and purifying the body. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In hatha-yoga, these are centres or wheels located along the central axis of the subtle body, connected by channels along which flows the energy or the life force which animates the body.
The dominant system is that of six or seven cakras along the body's axis, with each center or locus being associated with a particular sound and having a specific number of petals. Range from genitals to head. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the channels that connect the chakras along which the life force energy (prana) flows.
pervade the subtle body.
are hidden, conventionally 35 million of them |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
life force which animates the human body.
According to esoteric anatomical ideas, first found in Vedic texts (especially the Upaniṣads), and, later, in yogic and Tantric systems, and Āyurveda, the force that animates the human body, as well as the whole of creation.
the chief faculty which arises from the ātman. (Some consider it synonymous with ātman/brahman.)
a generic term for the various kinds of breath in the body, prāṇa is also used in a specific sense to designate inhalation, or the ‘in-breath’, as opposed (according to some accounts) to the ‘out-breath’ (apāna), which controls exhalation and excretion, the ‘circulatory breath’ (vyāna), diffused throughout the body |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A generic (i.e. non-sectarian) term for a complex of religious attitudes and practices predicated on total devotion to a supreme deity with whom the devotee (bhakta) has a personal relationship
Although the basic attitude of the bhakta to the deity is one of devotion, this has been conceptualized in numerous ways. For instance, within Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism the devotee can assume a number of different bhāva or ‘attitudes’ towards Kṛṣṇa, ranging from servitude to the kind of love experienced by the gopīs.
Comes from the root which means "share"
Divine-human mutuality. Offerings of food and perfume. Taken seriously because actions on earth determine status in afterlife. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| personal God/Goddess to which bhakti is expressed. This expression becomes a central, all-pervasive moment |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A term for narrative texts widely regarded within the tradition as true and, therefore, in the widest sense, historical stories, although Western sources usually classify them as ‘mythical’. The term is specifically applied to the two Epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. It is often combined with Purāṇa (itihāsa-purāṇa) to designate a huge body of authoritative narrative material embodying the tradition (smṛti) which informs theistic Hinduism. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
One of the three great deities of medieval and subsequent Hinduism; he and his avatāras (especially Kṛṣṇa and Rāma) are the focus of worship in the Vaiṣṇava traditions (collectively referred to as Vaiṣṇavism). Viṣṇu first appears in the Ṛg Veda as a beneficent but less than prominent solar deity.
Standard depictions of Viṣṇu (as opposed to his avatāras) show him as an upright, four-armed, kingly figure, wearing royal clothes and jewellery, and an elaborate, often cylindrical crown (kirīṭa). He carries a conch-shell (śaṅkha), a club (gada), a discus (cakra (2)) and a lotus (padma); alternatively, one hand may be raised in either the abhaya- or the varada- mudrās, another may rest on his hip.
Kṛṣṇa and Rāma (who become the chief deities of the Vaiṣṇava bhakti traditions) are shown to be incarnations, or ‘descents’ of the supreme God, Viṣṇu. By way of these avatāras, Viṣṇu, who ultimately transcends all particular forms, undertakes what, by then, is perceived to be his chief cosmic function, the periodic restitution and preservation of dharma, which includes the sacrificial and social orders.
Manifests himself in 3 ways: ten incarnations (avatara) upon earth during times of darkness, various manifestations or icons in temples and shrines, within the hearts of all beings as their inner controller. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| As a noun, a devotee, or devotees of Viṣṇu (also referred to as Vaiṣṇavites), of whom the two most numerous groups are worshippers of Kṛṣṇa and Rāma, classically regarded as avatāras of Viṣṇu. Vaiṣṇavas can sometimes be distinguished by their sectarian mark (tilaka), a figure curved upward like the letter U from the meeting point of the eyebrows, with a vertical red line between its arms. As an adjective, anything relating, belonging, or sacred to Viṣṇu. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Mahābhārata contains some of the best-loved stories in Indian literature, many of them, like the central narrative itself, continuously recast in vernacular languages, and told again in countless dramatic performances, visual representations, and music. Particularly productive in this respect are the stories of Śakuntalā, Sāvitrī, and Nala—not to mention the Mahābhārata's own version of the Rāma story (Rāmopākhyāna). Among the more didactic portions, the Bhagavadgītā (part of the Bhīṣmaparvan), is notable for being treated by many as an autonomous sacred text, effectively ‘authored’ by Kṛṣṇa.
The central concept is clearly the complex one of dharma, which is represented as being in perpetual crisis at all levels—individual, social, and cosmic. Variously analysed and questioned, the resolution of this dharmic crisis becomes a key conundrum both for the protagonists and the audience.
400-300 BCE. Longest epic poem in the world. contains descriptions of yoga. Exists as a vital and fluid part of contemporary Hinduism, and is still in the process of being recast in different modes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Another epic that contains the story of King Rama.
Like the Mahabharata, there are two major recensions, the northern and the southern with the southern being earlier.
Exists in many versions and tellings but is always a tale about dharma.
It is an oral tradition recited and acted out throughout the vilages and towns of india. One festival where this is done is the annual Ram Lila which attracts thousands of pilgrims.
Story is of the triumph of good over evil, dharma over adharma. Presents Rama and Sita as ideal examples of dharmic gender roles for Hindu couples. Sita is dedicated to husband but also retains autonomy and independent identity while Rama fulfills all his ethical duties |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A fundamental text for Hindus—for many, the most sublime. It forms part of book vi of the Mahābhārata, and in eighteen sections of 700 verses, it explores the situation which has brought the warrior Arjuna to a crisis of conscience: he is opposed in battle by members of his own family; should he attack and perhaps kill them? Offered the assistance of Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra, he accepts and receives instruction on appropriate conduct and attitudes. The main part of the Gītā records this instruction. Kṛṣṇa points Arjuna to the three paths (marga), of knowledge (jñāna-marga), of action with detachment (karma-marga), and of devotion to God (bhakti-mārga). Since these are ways of being united to the ultimately true and real, they are also known as karmayoga, jñāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga, the latter amounting to rāja-yoga.
The Gītā appears to have been addressed (the date is uncertain, but c.200 bce is likely) to a situation in which major unease about the excessive and costly rituals of Brahmanical religion had led to a reaction so severe that it had isolated both Buddhism and Jainism as separate religions. The Gītā appears to make a deliberate attempt to show the worth of the major ways of the continuing tradition (though obviously it corrects any non-theistic system if taken in isolation). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A collective term used in the Mahābhārata for the five sons of Pāṇḍu (i.e. Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva), and, by extension, their followers and relatives
The Pāṇḍavas, along with their rivals and cousins, the Kauravas, are the major protagonists in the conflict for the lordship of Kurukṣetra, which is the central narrative plank of the Mahābhārata. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In the Mahābhārata, Arjuna, the son of Kuntī and Indra, is the third of the five Pāṇḍava brothers. Renowned for his skill as an archer, he takes a hero's leading role in most of the major episodes of the epic. Notably, it is Arjuna who wins the contest for Draupadī's hand in marriage, although he subsequently has to share her with his brothers. He becomes the friend of Kṛṣṇa, whose sister, Subhadrā, he marries. (Their son, Abhimanyu, is killed in the Kurukṣetra war.) During the Pāṇḍavas' exile in the forest, Arjuna journeys to Indra's heaven to obtain weapons; he also spends a period practising asceticism in the mountains and acquires more weaponry from Śiva.
Arjuna's importance in the Mahābharata is emphasized by the fact that the entire text is portrayed as being recited to his great-grandson, Janamejaya. Beyond his renown as a great hero (compared by some to other Indo-European heroes, such as Achilles, and Odysseus), he is above all the recipient of the Bhagavadgītā and, as such, a model for those in search of the correct way to act. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
One of the major Hindu gods, regarded by his devotees as the supreme deity. As worshipped since the medieval period, Kṛṣṇa has been characterized by some scholars as a ‘composite’ god, insofar as his character and story appear to be derived from the amalgamation of what were, originally, at least two different figures. Apart from some ambiguous appearances in the Vedic literature, the earliest references to Vāsudeva, a god identified as a precursor of the Epic and Purāṇic Kṛṣṇa, occur in Sanskrit sources of the 5th and 6th centuries bce, and in the works of Greek historians. This Vāsudeva may have originated as the deified hero or king of the Vṛṣṇi tribe. He was subsequently amalgamated with Kṛṣṇa, the similarly deified chief of the Yādavas of Dvāraka, so that, by the time of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa appears as a single deity, thought to be synonymous with, or an avatāra of, the Vedic god, Viṣṇu.
As his name suggests, Kṛṣṇa is most usually depicted as a blue or dark-skinned young man. He has an extended and rich pan-Indian mythology, ranging from his exploits as a child and flute-playing youth in Vṛndāvana, to his identification with Viṣṇu, and his pivotal role in the Mahābhārata. In all such guises, he has been, and remains (with a wide variety of local and regional variations) an immensely popular subject for paintings, textile hangings, sculpture, and poetry, as well as the inspiration for dramatic performances, and musical compositions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The monkey general (son of wind god Vayu) who directed the building of a causeway from India to Sri Lanka that allowed for Rama to save Sita from the demon king Ravana. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Demon King who kidnaps Sita while Rama and his brother Laksmana go hunting during Rama's exile.
He is the 10 headed demon king of Sri Lanka. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A huge body of narrative texts, originally mostly in Sanskrit verse, purporting to deal with an ancient past—one predicated on a cyclical and continuous cosmogony, divided into various ages (yuga). Along with itihāsa (the Epics), the Purāṇas embody the tradition (smṛti) which informs theistic Hinduism from a Brahmanical perspective. More than any other body of Hindu literature, these exceptionally popular texts have proved impossible to date with any confidence, since the extant versions are often composite, and may have been expanded, or even contracted, from earlier versions.
There are 18 major Puranas and 18 related subordinate texts known as Upapuranas.
Traditionally cover 5 topics: Creation of the universe, descruction and recreation of the universe, genealogies of gods and sages, reign of the 14 Manus, the history of the solar and lunar dynasties of kings |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
"descent-forms"
‘incarnations’ of Viṣṇu, but also more widely to any manifestation of a deity in a particular physical form, including living gurus and famous teachers from the past.
What become the systematized lists of Viṣṇu's avatāras emerge only slowly in the Epic literature. Lists vary as to numbers (from four to twenty-nine plus) and personnel, but by the 8th century ce the standard number in the Vaiṣṇava Purāṇic texts is given as ten
Some or all of these figures were originally independent deities incorporated through the avatāra doctrine into the Vaiṣṇava tradition. Underlying this is the perception that Viṣṇu, as the supreme God, transcends all particular forms.
This doctrine allow for the universalizing claim of Visnus total world transcendence and allows for Vaisnavism to incorporate other traditions as all beings including the gods worship Visnus incarnation for his supreme form is unknown |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
One of the seven ancient holy cities of India, it is said to have been Rāma's birthplace and capital; much of the action which opens and closes the Rāmāyaṇa takes place there.
Lots of conflict between hindus and muslims |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Garuḍa is the god-bird mount of the Hindu (see Hindu entries) god Viṣṇu (see Viṣṇu). He represents both the sun and fire and is known as the enemy of the snakes (see Nagas). The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (see Purāṇas) tells how the Nagas present Garuda with an offering each fortnight in order to protect themselves from his tendency to otherwise devour them. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A form of the Goddess (see Devī) as the wife of the cosmic Hindu preserver god Viṣṇu (see Viṣṇu), Lakṣmī, or Śrī (see Śrī), stands for prosperity and good fortune in this world. In short, she is the worldly reflection of Viṣṇu's power, literally, the world that emerges from the god. Lakṣmī is Viṣṇu's śakti (see śakti), the energy without which he cannot be active or material. Thus, when Viṣṇu sleeps on the serpent Śeśa (see Ananta) during the cosmic night before the creation of the world, Śrī is at his feet as Bhu (Earth), ready to be united with him when he awakens. By extension, the wives of the great Viṣṇu avatars (see Avatars of Viṣṇu), such as Rāma's (see Rāma) Sītā (see Sītā), are incarnations of Lakṣmī
To preserve Lakṣmī—prosperity—proper sacrificial rituals must be performed, because, as in the cosmos, prosperity on earth depends on sacrificial destruction. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The gopī singled out from the others as Kṛṣṇa's favorite lover and consort in Jayadeva's Gītagovinda, an erotic pairing which thereafter became the key component of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theology and practice, in so far as Caitanya, the Gosvāmīs, and numerous bhakti poets saw it as a template for the relationship between God (Bhagavān) and his devotees (bhaktas).
By identifying with Rādhā in her all-encompassing, secret, and intense, because conventionally adulterous, longing for Kṛṣṇa, on a register that stretches from separation (viraha) to (re)union, the devotee can aspire to experience a divine love (preman) concomitant with liberation. |
|
|
Term
| Brahmanization/Sanskritization |
|
Definition
the process by which brahmanical traditions influence popular religion. This involves local deities or myths being adopted by the larger body of Hindu believers, and being made into pan-hindu myths or universal deities.
Popular religion often extremely localized (vernacular of people). This process molds culture and deities into something more orthodox and universally applicable. Thought that Krsna started off as local deity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
One of the three great deities of medieval and subsequent Hinduism; he is the focus of worship in the Śaiva traditions (collectively referred to as Śaivism). His historical origins are obscure, although some claim to find evidence of a ‘proto-Śiva’ cult in the material remains of the Indus Valley civilization.
Śiva is portrayed in multiple ways, with numerous regional (e.g. Khaṇḍobā), sectarian (e.g. Bhairava), and mythological (e.g. Gaṅgādhara) variations. His anthropomorphic depiction as the great ascetic, whose mastery of yoga (the tapas he has generated) is signified by his ‘third-eye’, typically shows him smeared in ashes (bhasman), clad in the skin of a tiger or an elephant, carrying a trident (triśūla) or khaṭvāṅga, his hair in a matted top-knot (jaṭā), crowned by a crescent moon, wearing a garland (mālā) of rudrākṣa berries, or of skulls, entwined with snakes and carrying an alms bowl made from a human skull (kapāla).
Śiva is visualized as the ecstatic, omnipresent, and omnipotent cosmic deity who, as Naṭarāja, dances the world to destruction, only to create it again as part of the continuing cosmic cycle. Although his temples and tīrthas are ubiquitous, he is particularly associated with the city of Vārāṇasī.
n general, his representations in painting, sculpture, and narrative are intended to evoke the ambiguity inherent in his power: he is the sexually continent, celibate, ascetic mendicant—the solitary, matted-haired ‘outsider’, patrolling the fringes of Vedic culture, deliberately, and terrifyingly, courting the impurities of the cremation ground. At the same time, he is the sensual, erotic, and fertile God in his familial prime, surrounded, in his Himālayan stronghold, by his wife (Pārvatī), and children |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In the Ṛg Veda, Dakṣa appears as the male principle of creation or creative energy. This role is modified and personified in Epic and Purāṇic mythology, where Dakṣa is said to be (a) Prajāpati, produced by Brahmā; he is regarded as a secondary creator (or son of the secondary creator) and seer (ṛṣi), present in each cycle of creation (manvantara), and particularly associated with the power of the sacrifice (yajña).
The best-known myth concerning Dakṣa tells how his sacrifice was destroyed by Śiva (in his ferocious Vīrabhadra form) after the god had been deliberately excluded from it. Dakṣa was then decapitated by Śiva, but restored to life (in some accounts with a goat's head) once Śiva had been promised his proper share of the sacrifice by the other gods. Some versions of the myth tie Śiva's anger to the suicide of his wife, Dakṣa's own daughter, Satī, caused by the insult her father offered the god. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In Purāṇic mythology, the wife of Śiva (so a form of the Goddess) and a daughter of Dakṣa. She is said to have attracted the god's attention through the strength of her devotion to him, manifested in her yogic practice. Such is the insult suffered when Dakṣa excludes her husband from the sacrifice that Satī immolates herself in the fire created by her own yoga.
(satī (‘true’ or ‘virtuous wife’)) A woman who expresses her faithful devotion to her husband, and avoids the supposed inauspiciousness of widowhood, by (in theory, voluntarily) immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre, in a practice known as sahamaraṇa (‘dying together’), sahagamana (‘going together’), or anumaraṇa (‘dying after’). In the process, she ensures him a good rebirth by wiping out the consequences of his (or his entire family's) bad karmic actions. Although recorded as an option in the Epics, becoming a satī in this ritual sense has always been regarded as an exceptional rather than a usual practice for widows, and even according to the later dharma texts that condone it, it should be entered into freely. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A 22 000 ft mountain peak in the Himālayas, situated in Tibet, close to the sacred lake Manāsa. (Ancient Indian cosmology places it south of Mount Meru). It has a long history as a pilgrimage site, although it is now only intermittently open to Indian pilgrims. Its attraction derives from its identification as where Śiva meditates in the mountains, his dwelling place and paradise. Kubera is also supposed to reside there. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A benevolent form of the Goddess (Devī), Pārvatī is depicted as a good wife and the devoted mother of her sons, Gaṇeśa and Skanda. A number of myths tell of her indefatigable pursuit of the god before their marriage. Iconographically, Pārvatī is most frequently depicted as a beautiful, two-armed woman, in the company of her husband or family; her vehicle (vāhana) is a lion. She is not usually worshipped independently.
Married to siva. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The popular god of ‘obstacles’ (Vigneśvara): he removes them—hence the name, Vināyaka, ‘remover’—but, if not properly propitiated, he can also impose them. He is therefore invoked at the beginning of almost any undertaking, whether ritual, literary, or simply setting out on a journey. This means he plays an essential, although limited role in the daily life of many, if not most Hindus. A related function is Gaṇeśa's guardianship of door-ways and entrances. Images of the god in this role are ubiquitous on lintels throughout India. There, as elsewhere, he is portrayed as elephant-headed and human-bodied, with a snake-entwined pot belly and the limbs of a chubby child. Of his various attributes, an elephant goad, a noose, and a bowl of sweetmeats (laḍḍus) are among those most frequently depicted. His vāhana (‘vehicle’) is a rat.
Although Gaṇeśa is embedded in Śaiva mythology, his appeal crosses sectarian and, indeed, religious boundaries; there are Buddhist and Jain equivalents. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A depiction of Śiva and Pārvatī combined as a single figure, the right side male, the left side female, demonstrating the union of Śiva and his śakti.
"half male half female" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
king/lord of the dance
An epithet of Śiva, current from at least the early centuries ce, indicating his ecstatic, omnipresent, and unlimited power as the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of the universe, as expressed through his ānandatāṇḍava, or cosmic ‘dance of bliss’. From the 10th century ce, this became the standard sculptural representation of the god in South Indian temples; of these, the best-known is the image installed at Cidambaram, which is where the dance is said to have been first performed, and where Naṭarāja became, effectively, the tutelary deity of the Cōḻa dynasty. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the happy one
The name of Śiva's vehicle (vāhana) or mount. Said to be the son of Kaśyapa and Kāmadhenu, he is depicted at the entrance to Śiva temples (often in his own pavilion) as a humped bull with his legs tucked beneath his body, gazing at the liṅga. In southern India, he may also be shown as an anthropomorphic devotee of Śiva, barely distinguishable from the god himself. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
sign’, ‘ characteristic mark’, ‘ emblem’, ‘ phallus
An abstract or aniconic representation of Śiva, which is the form in which the god is most usually worshipped, whether in temples, smaller shrines, or as self-manifesting (svayaṃbhū) in natural objects. The liṅga is a phallus-shaped, vertical shaft, usually set into a pedestal (pīṭha) in the shape of a yoni (vulva), representing Śiva's śakti, or female power. (The yoni may be shaped as a spout, enabling water, and other substances used in the abhiṣeka of the liṅga, to drain away.) The liṅga and yoni together are taken to represent the undifferentiated unity of spirit (male) and matter (female), which is the god's unlimited, and continuously dynamic potency—his simultaneously creative and destructive energy. Despite its appearance (and perhaps its origins), the liṅga is therefore not regarded as a ‘phallic symbol’ in the Western sense; rather, it is viewed, and treated in pūjā, in ways similar to any other representation of a supreme deity, including elaborate garlanding and dressing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
womb’, ‘ uterus’, ‘ vagina’, ‘ vulva
A stylized representation of female genitalia, representing the Goddess and/or female power (śakti). The best known iconographic depiction is the near aniconic yoni which provides the pedestal (pīṭha) into which Śiva liṅgas are usually set, sometimes shaped as a spout, enabling water, and other substances used in the abhiṣeka of the liṅga, to drain away. The liṅga and yoni together (representing Śiva and his śakti) are taken to represent the undifferentiated unity of spirit (male) and matter (female), which is the god's unlimited, and continuously dynamic potency—his simultaneously creative and destructive energy. |
|
|
