1.
Daksa (island)
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Daksa is a small uninhabited island in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. It is situated near Dubrovnik in front of Rijeka Dubrovačka ria, the area of the island is about 0.07 km2, the highest point is 24 m above sea level. The Daksas Franciscan monastery was built in 1281, the island was the site of the Daksa massacre by Yugoslav partisans entrance of Dubrovnik in late October 1944. The mayor of Dubrovnik Niko Koprivica was among those executed, in September 2009, authorities discovered the remains of six victims in the area. Soon after, the Daksa 1944/45 Association announced that 48 bodies had been discovered on the island, the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee Ivo Banac called for an investigation into what exactly occurred during the massacre. Members of the Croatian Bishops Conference visited the site in October,2009
2.
Sheep
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The sheep is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female sheep is referred to as a ewe, a male as a ram or occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe, one of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleece, meat and milk. A sheeps wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones, Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science. Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, in the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production. Sheepraising has a lexicon of unique terms which vary considerably by region. Use of the sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap. A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob, many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age. Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, as livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, in both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals. Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool, domestic sheep differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all, or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a pair, but a few breeds may have several. Another trait unique to domestic sheep as compared to wild ovines is their variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited, colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald
3.
Virabhadra
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Virabhadra or Veerabhadra is a fearsome form of the Hindu god Shiva. He was created by the wrath of Shiva and destroyed the Yagna of Daksha, after Dakshas daughter and he is described as a warrior who eventually blinded Bhaga, subdued Indra and broke, among many other countless gods, Pushans teeth. Other gods fled the battlefield unable to sustain his power, Sati was the youngest daughter of Daksha. When Sati grew up she set her heart on Shiva, worshipping him, in the Swayamvara of Sati, Daksha invited all gods and princes except Shiva. Sati cast her garland into air, calling upon Shiva to receive the garland, Daksha had no choice but to get Sati married with Shiva. One day Daksha made arrangements for a horse sacrifice called the Daksha Yaga. Satis urge to go to her due to the affection towards her parents overpowered the social etiquette for not going to an uninvited ceremony. Then Shiva came to know about this and with deep sorrow and anger, plucked a lock of hair, Lord Veerabhadra, and Rudrakali were born. To provide him the power, arrived Bhadrakali, an incarnation of Devi. Maheshwara replied, Spoil the sacrifice of Daksha and she too in her wrath, as the fearful goddess Rudrakali, accompanied him, with all her train, to witness his deeds. Shiva directed Virabhadra, Lead my army against Daksha and destroy his sacrifice, Lord Vishnu could not let his devotee - Daksha be mortified by Virabhadra. He therefore got astride his Garuda, armed as he was with Conch, Discus and Bow and Arrows and he immediately rained powerful arrows at his foe from all directions. Angered all the more by this unexpected attack, Veerabhadra also climbed a chariot. Both used celestial weapons - one upon the other, but none of them was affected in the least though they struck awe into the hearts of the onlookers, both were equally matched and both were adept and quick with their hands and weapons in offensive and defensive. Keenly watching the duel and thinking that Veerabhadra might come out victorious. Continuing the duel, Veerabhadra showered multiple weapons of tremendous power at Vishnu who retaliated with equal might, the firmament reverberated with thunder and lightning. Seeing Vishnus Discus approaching him thus, Veerabhadra coolly opened his vast mouth and swallowed it at one gulp, Lord Vishnu was astonished at this miracle and was filled with admiration for Veerabhadra. Instantly he flew to his side in great ecstasy and praised his erstwhile opponent thus,0 Veerabhadra Mahavira, there is none to equal you here nor in the seven worlds
4.
Aditi
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In the Vedas, Aditi is mother of the gods and all twelve zodiacal spirits from whose cosmic matrix, the heavenly bodies were born. As celestial mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is associated with space and she may be seen as a feminized form of Brahma and associated with the primal substance in Vedanta. In contrast, the Puranas, such as the Shiva Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, suggest that Aditi is wife of sage Kashyap and gave birth to the Adityas such as Indra, Surya, and also Vamana. The name is mentioned in Vedas as mother of Surya and other bodies or gods Adityas. The first mention of goddess Aditi is found in Rigveda, which is estimated to have been composed roughly during 1700-1100 BC, Aditi with sage Kashyapa had 33 sons, out of which twelve are called Aditya including Surya, eleven are called Rudras and eight are called Vasus. Aditi is said to be the mother of the great god Indra, the mother of kings, in the Vedas, Aditi is Devamata as from and in her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born. Accordingly, Vishnu was born as the son of Aditi in the month of Shravana under the star Shravana, many auspicious signs appeared in the heavens, foretelling the good fortune of this child. In the Rigveda, Aditi is one of the most important figures of all, as a mothering presence, Aditi is often asked to guard the one who petitions her or to provide him or her with wealth, safety, and abundance. Aditi is usually mentioned in the Rigveda along with other gods, there is no one hymn addressed exclusively to her, unlike other Vedic gods. She is perhaps not related to a natural phenomenon like other gods. Compared to Usha and Prithvi, Aditi can be defined as the cosmic creatrix, the name Aditi includes the root da and suggests another attribute of her character. As A-diti, she is un-bound, free one, and it is evident in the hymns to her that she is called to free the petitioner from different hindrances, especially sin. In one hymn, she is asked to free a petitioner who has tied up like a thief. As one who unbinds, her role is similar to her son Varunas as guardian of Rta and she is called the supporter of creatures. It also means one of its kind or unique, Aditi challenges the modern idea that the Vedic peoples were patriarchal. Aditi was regarded as both the sky goddess, and earth goddess, which is rare for a prehistoric civilization. Most prehistoric civilizations venerated a dual principle, Sky Father and Earth Mother, Aditi was attributed the status of first deity by the Vedic culture, although she is not the only one attributed this status in the Vedas. She is addressed, in the Rigveda as Mighty, like many other Hindu gods and goddesses, Aditi has a savari
5.
Sati (Hindu goddess)
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Satī, is also known as Dakshayani. In the Tamil tradition, Sati is called Tamil, தாட்சாயிணி Tāṭcāyiṇi, Sati is the goddess of marital felicity and longevity in Hinduism. An aspect of Adi Parashakti, Dakshayani is the first consort of Shiva, in Hindu legend, both Sati and Parvati successively play the role of bringing Shiva away from ascetic isolation into creative participation with the world. Queen Prasuti desired a daughter, Lord Brahma advised her and her husband Daksha to meditate upon the Goddess Adi-Parashakti and they gave up their royal robes, put on the guises of saints, and sat in a forest and meditated upon Goddess Adi-Parashakti. After a long time, Goddess Adi-Parashakti appeared awakening Daksha and Prasuti from their penance, Adi Parashakti invited them to request the desired boon from her, Daksha asked the Goddess to take birth again as their daughter. The Goddess gave them their consent but also gave them a warning that if ever she should be insulted, she would take up her Celestial form, Daksha and Prasuti agreed to take care of her. Back in their palace, Adi parashakti again took human birth at the bidding of Lord Brahma, Daksha and Prasuti named their daughter Sati. Daksha was a son of Brahma and a king in his own right. As the daughter of King Daksha, Sati is also known as Dakshayani, Sati was a newborn to Daksha and Prasutis 23 daughters. In bidding of Adi-Parashakti to take birth, Brahmas design was that she would please Shiva with humble devotions. It was natural that Sati, even as a child, adored the tales and legends associated with Shiva told by sage Narada, as she grew to womanhood, the idea of marrying anyone else, as intended by her father, became unfair to her. Her prayers finally bore fruit when, after testing her resolve, Shiva finally acceded to her wishes, an ecstatic Sati returned to her fathers home to await her bridegroom, but found her father less than elated by the turn of events. The wedding was held in due course, and Sati made her home with Shiva in Kailash. Daksha, depicted in legend as an arrogant king, did not get on with his renunciative son-in-law, Daksha organized a yagna ritual and invited all the Gods, Goddesses and princes. But he did not invite Shiva or Sati because he was unhappy that his daughter had married Shiva, Sati learnt about the yagna and asked Shiva to go with her. When Shiva refused, Sati insisted upon going and was escorted by Shivas troops to her fathers kingdom, upon reaching, Daksha got angry on seeing her and yelled at her telling her she was not welcome. Sati tried to make him understand but it was no use and it is said that when Daksha did not stop yelling, the angered Sati took the form of the goddess, Adi Parashakti. Lightning and thunder threatened to destroy the Earth, all sorts of calamities arose as Mother Earth couldnt bear her strong radiance and power
6.
Svaha
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In Hinduism and Buddhism, the Sanskrit lexical item svāhā is a denouement indicating the end of the mantra. In the Tibetan language, svaha is translated as so be it and is often pronounced, whenever fire sacrifices are made, svāhā is chanted. Etymologically, the term is probably from su well and the root ah to call, as a feminine noun, svāhā in the Rigveda may also mean oblation, and as oblation personified, Svāhā is a minor Goddess, and the wife of Agni. She was originally a nymph but became immortal after marrying Agni, in some versions, she is one of the many divine mothers of Kartikeya. She is also the mother of Aagneya - the daughter of Agni and she is considered to be a daughter of Daksha. She is thought to preside over burnt offerings, in the Mahabharata Vana Parva, Markandeya narrates her story to the Pandavas. Svaha was the daughter of Daksha and she fell in love with the god of fire, Agni, and was pursuing him. Agni however, did not notice her, Agni presided over the sacrificial rituals of the Saptarshis. The god became highly besotted with the wives of the Saptarshis who were so attractive and beautiful, finally, Agni could not bear the guilt of longing for wives belonging to someone else and he went to the forests to perform penances. Svaha followed him and realised his desire and she took the forms of the wives of the Saptarshis (though she was unable to take the form of Arundhati, wife of Vashishtha, and approached Agni. Agni and Svaha spent many loving moments in the forest
7.
Revati
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Revati, within Hinduism, is daughter of King Kakudmi and consort of the God Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna. Her account is given within a number of Puranic texts such as the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana, the Garga Samhita narrates the previous birth of Revati as Jyotishmati, the daughter of King Chakshush Manu, who ruled over the Earth. The king performed a fire sacrifice, out of which a divine lady was born to him as his daughter. Upon asked by her father, she said, she would like to marry the mightiest of all, the god Indra informed the king that the wind Vayu was powerful than him. Vayu directed Manu to Parvat, said the earth-god Bhumandal was more powerful than him, ultimately, the earth said that Shesha, the serpent who carries the earth and the worlds on his hoods, is the most powerful, Balarama would be Sheshas most powerful form. Jyotishmati went to Vindhya mountains and performed tapas to marry Balarama, numerous deities tried to dissuade her and win her over as wife, however she cursed all of them. In counter-curse, Indra cursed Jyotishmati that she would not have sons, finally, Brahma pleased with her penance blessed her that she would marry Balarama, but warned that he would be born 27 yugas later. An enraged Jyotishmati threatened to curse Brahma too and he pacified her by giving her another boon that she would be born as Revati, daughter of King Kakudmi, whose actions would lead to the 27 eons passing in a jiffy. Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana and Garga Samhita narrate the tale of Revati with some variation, when they arrived, Brahma was listening to a musical performance by the Gandharvas, so they waited patiently until the performance was finished. Then, Kakudmi bowed humbly, made his request and presented his shortlist of candidates, King Kakudmi was overcome with astonishment and alarm at this news. However, Brahma comforted him and added that god Vishnu, the Preserver, was currently on Earth in the forms of Krishna and Balarama, Kakudmi and Revati then returned to earth, which they regarded as having left only just a short while ago. They were shocked by the changes that had taken place, the Bhagavata Purana describes that they found the race of men had become dwindled in stature, reduced in vigour, and enfeebled in intellect. Kakudmi and Revati found Balarama and proposed the marriage, the marriage was then duly celebrated. Revati bore her husband two sons, Nisatha and Ulmuka, both her sons Nisatha and Ulmuka were killed in the Yadu fratricidal war after which Balarama also ended his earthly incarnation in meditation by the sea. At his funeral ceremony, Revati ascended onto his funeral pyre and was immolated with him, according to a story that is not found in Mahabharata or Puranas, but is popular in folk narrative, especially in Andhra Pradesh, Revati and Balarama also had a daughter, Vatsala. Upon reaching an age, Vatsala was promised to her cousin Abhimanyu, son of the Pandava Arjuna and his wife Subhadra. But the Pandava Bhimas son Ghatotkacha learnt of this from his distressed cousin Abhimanyu and aunt Subhadra, Balarama Yuga Bhagavata Purana www. mythfolklore. net www. mypurohith. com/encyclopedia The astronomical explanation
8.
Rati
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Rati is the Hindu goddess of love, carnal desire, lust, passion and sexual pleasure. Usually described as the daughter of Prajapati Daksha, Rati is the counterpart, the chief consort and the assistant of Kama. A constant companion of Kama, she is depicted with him in legend. She also enjoys worship along with Kama, Rati is often associated with the arousal and delight of sexual activity, and many sex techniques and positions derive their Sanskrit names from hers. The Hindu scriptures stress Ratis beauty and sensuality and they depict her as a maiden who has the power to enchant the god of love. When the god Shiva burnt her husband to ashes, it was Rati, whose beseeching or penance, often, this resurrection occurs when Kama is reborn as Pradyumna, the son of Krishna. Rati – under the name of Mayavati – plays a role in the upbringing of Pradyumna. She acts as his nanny, as well as his lover, and tells him the way to return to his parents by slaying the demon-king, later, Kama-Pradyumna accepts Rati-Mayavati as his wife. The name of the goddess Rati comes from the Sanskrit root ram, although the verb root generally refers to any sort of enjoyment, it usually carries connotations of physical and sensual enjoyment. Etymologically, the word refers to anything that can be enjoyed. The Kalika Purana narrates the tale about Ratis birth. After the creation of the 10 Prajapatis, Brahma – the creator-god – creates Kama, Kama is ordered to spread love in the world by shooting his flower-arrows and Prajapati Daksha is requested to present a wife to Kama. Kama first uses his arrows against Brahma and the Prajapatis, who are all attracted to Brahmas daughter Sandhya. Shiva, who was passing by, watches them and laughs, embarrassed, Brahma and the Prajapatis tremble and perspire. From the sweat of Daksha rises a beautiful woman named Rati, at the same time, the agitated Brahma curses Kama to be burnt to ashes by Shiva in the future. However, on Kamas pleading, Brahma assures him that he would be reborn, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana narrates that Sandhya committed suicide, after Brahma lusts for her. God Vishnu resurrects her and names her Rati, and marries her to Kama, the Shiva Purana mentions that after her suicide Sandhya is reborn from the sweat of Daksha as Rati. In some texts, the god Shiva is described as the father of Rati, the Harivamsa, an appendix to the epic Mahabharata, mentions that Kama and Rati have two children, Harsha and Yashas
9.
Brahma
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Brahma is the creator god in the Trimurti of Hinduism. Brahma is also known as Svayambhu, Vāgīśa, and the creator of the four Vedas, Brahma is identified with the Vedic god Prajapati, as well as linked to Kama and Hiranyagarbha, he is more prominently mentioned in the post-Vedic Hindu epics and the mythologies in the Puranas. In the epics, he is conflated with Purusha, Brahma, along with Vishnu and Shiva, is part of a Hindu Trinity, however, ancient Hindu texts mention other trinities of gods or goddesses which do not include Brahma. While Brahma is often credited as the creator of the universe and various beings in it, other Puranas suggest that he is born from Shiva or his aspects, or he is a supreme god in diverse versions of Hindu mythology. Brahma, along with all deities, is viewed as a form of the otherwise formless Brahman. Brahma does not enjoy popular worship in present-age Hinduism and has lesser importance than the members of the Trimurti, Vishnu. Brahma is revered in ancient texts, yet rarely worshipped as a deity in India. Very few temples dedicated to him exist in India, the most famous being the Brahma Temple, Brahma temples are found outside India, such as in Thailand at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok. The origins of Brahma are uncertain, in part because related words such as one for Ultimate Reality. The existence of a deity named Brahma is evidenced in late Vedic text. The spiritual concept of Brahman is far older, and some scholars suggest deity Brahma may have emerged as a personal conception and visible icon of the impersonal universal principle called Brahman. In Sanskrit grammar, the noun stem brahman forms two distinct nouns, one is a neuter noun bráhman, whose singular form is brahma. Contrasted to the noun is the masculine noun brahmán, whose nominative singular form is Brahma. This noun is used to refer to a person, and as the name of a deity Brahma it is the subject matter of the present article. One of the earliest mentions of Brahma with Vishnu and Shiva is in the fifth Prapathaka of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad, Brahma is discussed in verse 5,1 also called the Kutsayana Hymn first, and expounded in verse 5,2. In the pantheistic Kutsayana Hymn, the Upanishad asserts that ones Soul is Brahman, and this Ultimate Reality, Cosmic Universal or God is within each living being. In verse 5,2 Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are mapped into the theory of Guṇa, the post-Vedic texts of Hinduism offer multiple theories of cosmogony, many involving Brahma. Brahma is a creator as described in the Mahabharata and Puranas
10.
Saraswati
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Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and learning worshipped throughout Nepal and India. She is a part of the trinity of Saraswati, Lakshmi, all the three forms help the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva to create, maintain and regenerate-recycle the Universe respectively. The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a goddess is in the Rigveda and she has remained significant as a goddess from the Vedic period through modern times of Hindu traditions. Some Hindus celebrate the festival of Vasant Panchami in her honour, the Goddess is also revered by believers of the Jain religion of west and central India, as well as some Buddhist sects. Saraswati who is revered as a goddess of knowledge, music and arts is found outside Nepal and India, such as in Japan, Vietnam, Bali. It is also a Sanskrit composite word of surasa-vati which means one with plenty of water, the word Saraswati appears both as a reference to a river and as a significant deity in the Rigveda. In initial passages, the word refers to Sarasvati River and mentioned with other northwestern Indian rivers such as Drishadvati, Saraswati then connotes a river deity. In Book 2, Rigveda calls Saraswati as the best of mothers, of rivers, –Translated by John Muir In Vedic literature, Saraswati acquires the same significance for early Indians as that accredited to the river Ganges by their modern descendants. In hymns of Book 10 of Rigveda, she is declared to be the possessor of knowledge. In Upanishads and Dharma Sastras, Saraswati is invoked to remind the reader to meditate on virtue, virtuous emoluments, the meaning, Saraswati is known by many names in ancient Hindu literature. Some examples of synonyms for Saraswati include Brahmani, Brahmi, Bharadi, Vani and Vachi, Varnesvari, in Nepali language, her name is written Nepali, सरस्वती. In the Telugu, Sarasvati is also known as Chaduvula Thalli, in Konkani, she is referred to as Shārada, Veenapani, Pustaka dharini, Vidyadāyini. In Kannada, variants of her name include Sharade, Sharadamba, in Tamil, she is also known as Kalaimagal, Kalaivāni, Vāni, Bharathi. She is also addressed as Shāradā, Veenā pustaka dharani, Vākadevi, Vāni, Varadhanāyaki, in India she is locally spelled as Bengali, সরস্বতী, Saraswati. Malayalam, സരസ്വതി, Saraswati. and Tamil, சரஸ்வதி, Sarasvatī, outside Nepal and India, she is known in Burmese as Thurathadi or Tipitaka Medaw, in Chinese as Biàncáitiān, in Japanese as Benzaiten and in Thai as Suratsawadi or Saratsawadi. Saraswati is found in almost every major ancient and medieval Indian literature between 1000 BC to 1500 AD, in Hindu tradition, she has retained her significance as a goddess from the Vedic age up to the present day. In Shanti Parva of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Saraswati is called the mother of the Vedas, in Book 2 of Taittiriya Brahmana, she is called the mother of eloquent speech and melodious music. Saraswati is the energy and power of Brahma
11.
Four Kumaras
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The Kumaras are four sages who roam the universe as children from the Puranic texts of Hinduism, generally named Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanatkumara. They are described as the first mind-born creations and sons of the creator-god Brahma, born from Brahmas mind, the four Kumaras undertook lifelong vows of celibacy against the wishes of their father. They are said to wander throughout the materialistic and spiritualistic universe without any desire, all four brothers studied Vedas from their childhood, and always travelled together. It also mentions them as being an avatar of Vishnu, the group is known by various names, Kumaras, Chatursana or Chatuh sana and Sanakadi. Individual names usually include Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanatkumara, sometimes, Sanatana is replaced by Sanatsujata. A fifth Kumara named Ribhu is sometimes added, sometimes, the Kumaras are enumerated as six with Sana and Ribhu or Sanatsujata added. The four Kumaras are the eldest sons of the creator-god Brahma, when Brahma undertook the task of creation of the universe, he first created some beings from different parts of his body to aid him. The Kumaras was the first such beings and they were created from his mind and appeared as infants. The Bhagavata Purana narrates further that their refusal made Brahma angry and his wrath manifested into the god Rudra, as per a variant, Brahma practised austerities and pleased the Supreme God Vishnu, so he appeared in the form of the four infant Kumaras as Brahmas sons. Some texts like the Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Bhavishya Purana narrates the four Kumaras appeared even before the Brahma of the present age, the four Kumaras learnt the Vedas at the age of four or five. They thus became great jnanis, yogis and Siddhas, the Kumaras remained in form of children due to their spiritual virtues. The age of the sages varies in various sacred texts, while five is the most popular, they are also mentioned as being fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youths. They practised the vow of renunciation and celibacy and remained naked. They wander together throughout the materialistic and spiritualistic universe without any desire and they are sometimes included in the list of Siddhars. The four Kumaras are said to reside in Jana Loka or Janar loka or in Vishnus abode Vaikuntha and they constantly recite the mantra Hari sharanam or sing Vishnus praises. These hymns and glories of Vishnu serve as their only food, another son of Brahma, the sage Narada, who is described as their disciple, extolls their virtues in the Padma Purana. Narada says though they appear as children, they are the great ancestors of the world. The discourses of the four Kumaras are found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata as well as the Bhagavata Purana, the Shanti Parva book of the Mahabharata describes the discourse given by the four Kumaras to the demon king Vritra and his guru – the sage Shukra. The king and his guru worship the Kumaras and then Shukra asks them to describe the greatness of Vishnu, Sanat-kumara starts with describing Vishnu as the creator and destroyer of all beings
12.
Narada
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Narada is a Vedic sage, famous in Hindu traditions as a traveling musician and storyteller, who carries news and enlightening wisdom. He appears in a number of Hindu texts, notably the Mahabharata, in Indian texts, Narada travels to distant worlds and realms. He is depicted carrying a khartal and Veena with the name Mahathi and is regarded as one of the great masters of the ancient musical instrument. This instrument is known by the name mahathi which he uses to accompany his singing of hymns, prayers, in the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism, he is presented as a sage with devotion to Lord Vishnu. Narada is described as wise and mischievous, in humorous tales. Vaishnav enthusiasts depict him as a pure, elevated soul who glorifies Vishnu through his songs, singing the names Hari and Narayana. The Narada Bhakti Sutra is attributed to him, in the Mahabharata, Narada was conversant with the Vedas and the Upanishads and was acquainted with history and Puranas. He had mastery of the six Angas, pronunciation, grammar, prosody, terms, religious rites and he was a perfect master in re-conciliatory texts and differentiating in applying general principles to particular cases. He could swiftly interpret contraries by references to differences in situation and he was eloquent, resolute, intelligent and possessor of powerful memory. He knew the science of morals, politics, skilled in drawing inference from evidence and he was competent in judging the correctness and incorrectness of complex syllogistic statements consisting of 5 proponents. He was capable of arriving at definite conclusions about religion, wealth, pleasure and he possessed knowledge of this whole universe, above it, below it and everything surrounding it. He was capable of answering successively at Vrihaspati himself, while arguing and he was the master of the Sankhya and Yoga systems of philosophy, conversant with sciences of war and treaty and proficient in drawing conclusions of judging things not within a direct knowledge. He knew about the six sciences of treaty, war, military campaigns, maintenance of posts against the enemy and he was a thorough master of every branch of learning. He was fond of war and music and was incapable of being repulsed by any science or any course of action. The Bhagavata Purana describes the story of Naradas spiritual enlightenment, He was the source of information among Gods. He claimed to have 60 wives, in his previous birth Narada was a Gandharva who had been cursed to be born on an earthly planet as a sudra for singing glories to the demigods instead of the Supreme Lord. He was born as the son of a maid-servant of some particularly saintly priests, the priests, being pleased with both his and his mothers service, blessed him by allowing him to eat some of their food, previously offered to their lord, Vishnu. Gradually he received blessings from these sages and heard them discussing many spiritual topics
13.
Sanskrit
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
14.
Dharma
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Dharma is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. There is no single word translation for dharma in western languages, in Buddhism dharma means cosmic law and order, but is also applied to the teachings of the Buddha. In Buddhist philosophy, dhamma/dharma is also the term for phenomena, Dharma in Jainism refers to the teachings of tirthankara and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For Sikhs, the word means the path of righteousness. The Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, the word dharma was already in use in the historical Vedic religion, and its meaning and conceptual scope has evolved over several millennia. The antonym of dharma is adharma, the Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, which means to hold, maintain, keep, and takes a meaning of what is established or firm, and hence law. It is derived from an older Vedic Sanskrit n-stem dharman-, with a meaning of bearer, supporter. In the Rigveda, the word appears as an n-stem, dhárman-, figuratively, it means sustainer and supporter. It is semantically similar to the Greek Ethos, in Classical Sanskrit, the noun becomes thematic, dharma-. The word dharma derives from Proto-Indo-European root *dʰer-, which in Sanskrit is reflected as class-1 root √dhṛ, etymologically it is related to Avestan √dar-, Latin firmus, Lithuanian derė́ti, Lithuanian dermė and darna and Old Church Slavonic drъžati. Classical Sanskrit word dharmas would formally match with Latin o-stem firmus from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer-mo-s holding, were it not for its development from earlier Rigvedic n-stem. In Classical Sanskrit, and in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Atharvaveda, in Pāli, it is rendered dhamma. In some contemporary Indian languages and dialects it occurs as dharm. Dharma is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion and it has multiple meanings in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is difficult to provide a concise definition for dharma, as the word has a long and varied history and straddles a complex set of meanings. There is no equivalent single word translation for dharma in western languages, there have been numerous, conflicting attempts to translate ancient Sanskrit literature with the word dharma into German, English and French. The concept, claims Paul Horsch, has caused difficulties for modern commentators and translators. Dharma root is dhri, which means ‘to support, hold and it is the thing that regulates the course of change by not participating in change, but that principle which remains constant
15.
Kamadeva
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Kāmadeva or Kama is the Hindu god of human love or desire, often portrayed along with his female counterpart Rati. Some narratives also reference Pradyumna, Krishnas son, as a reincarnation of Kamadeva, the name Kama-deva can be translated as god of love. Kama means desire or longing, especially as in sensual or sexual love, the name is used in Rig Veda. Kamadeva is a name of Vishnu in Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana, Kama is also a name used for Agni. Kāmadeva is represented as a young, handsome man with green skin who wields a bow and his bow is made of sugarcane with a string of honeybees, and his arrows are decorated with five kinds of fragrant flowers. The five flowers are Ashoka tree flowers, white and blue flowers, Mallika plant. A terracotta murti of Kamadeva of great antiquity is housed in the Mathura Museum, UP, some of the attributes of Kamadeva are, his companions are a cuckoo, a parrot, humming bees, the season of spring, and the gentle breeze. All these are symbols of spring season, when his festival is celebrated as Holi, images and stories about Hindu god Kamadeva are traced to the verses of the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, although he is better known from the stories of the Puranas. According to Shiva Purana, Kamadeva is a son or a creation of Brahma, in other sources such as the Skanda Purana, Kamadeva is a brother of Prasuti, they are both the children of Shatarupa created by Brahma. Later interpretations also consider him the son of Vishnu, according to Matsya Purana, Visnu-Krishna and Kamadeva have a historical relationship. Kamadeva is also mentioned in the 12th-century Javanese poem Smaradahana, a rendering of the myth of Kamadevas burning by Shiva, Kama and his consort Rati are referenced as Kamajaya and Kamarati in Kakawin poetry and later Wayang narratives. Kamadeva is wed to Ratī, the daughter of Daksha, created from his sweat, Rati is a minor character in many traditional dramas involving Kamadeva, and in some ways represents an attribute. The goddess Vasanta, who also accompanies Kamadeva, emerges from a sigh of frustration, Kama often takes part in Puranic battles with his troops of soldiers. The story of the birth of Kamadeva has several variants in different Puranas, in the version of Mahabharata, a Prajapati named Dharma is born from the right breast of Brahma and begets three sons, Sama, Kama and Harsa. In some versions Kamadeva arises from the mind of the god, Brahma. Kamadeva is sometimes portrayed as being at the service of Indra, Kamadevas consort Rati, whose very essence is desire, carries a discus and a lotus, and her arms are compared with lotus-stalks. One of the myths regarding Kama is that of his incineration by Shiva. It occurs in its most developed form in the Matsya Purana but is repeated with variants in the Shaiva Purana
16.
Agni
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Agni means fire, and connotes the Vedic fire god of Hinduism. Agni also refers to one of the deities of direction. In the Vedic literature, Agni is a major and oft invoked god along with Indra, Agni is considered as the mouth of the gods and goddesses, and the medium that conveys offerings to them in a homa. He is conceptualized in ancient Hindu texts to exist at three levels, on earth as fire, in atmosphere as lightning, and in the sky as sun and this triple presence connects him as the messenger between gods and human beings in the Vedic thought. Agni is a term that appears extensively in Buddhist texts, the Sanskrit word Agni means fire. In the early Vedic literature, Agni primarily connotes the fire as a god, one reflecting the primordial powers to consume, transform and convey. In the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas, such as in section 5.2.3 of Shatapatha Brahmana, Agni represents all the gods, the etymology of Agni is uncertain and contested. According to the 5th-century BCE Sanskrit text Nirukta-Nighantu in section 7, from root aj, which in Sanskrit means to drive and mirrors in Indo-European languages in the sense of nimble, agile. There are many theories about the origins of the god Agni, some tracing it to Indo-European mythologies, the origin myth found in many Indo-European cultures is one of a bird, or bird like being, that carries or brings fire from the gods to mankind. Alternatively, this brings a elixir of immortality from heaven to earth. In either case, the bird returns everyday with sacrificial offerings for the gods, Agni is molded in similar mythical themes, in some hymns with the phrase the heavenly bird that flies. Agni originated from the forehead of Prajapati, assert these texts, with the creation of Agni came light, and with that were created day and night. Agni, state these Samhitas, is the same as the Brahman, the truth, Agni is originally conceptualized as the ultimate source of the creator-maintainer-destroyer triad, then one of the trinities, as the one who ruled the earth. His twin brother Indra ruled the atmosphere as the god of storm, rain and war, while Surya ruled the sky and his position and importance evolves over time, in the creator-maintainer-destroyer aspects of existence in Hindu thought. In the Vedic pantheon, Agni occupies, after Indra, the most important position, Agni is prominent in the hymns of the Vedas and particularly the Brahmanas. In the Rig Veda there are over 200 hymns that praise Agni and his name or synonyms appear in nearly a third of 1,028 hymns in the Rigveda. The Rigveda opens with a hymn inviting Agni, who is addressed later in the hymn as the guardian of Ṛta. The Vedas describe the parents of Agni as two kindling fire sticks, whose loving action creates him, just born, he is poetically presented as a tender baby, who needs loving attention lest he vanishes
17.
Kshatriya
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Kshatriya is one of the four varna of the Hindu society. The Sanskrit term kshatriya is used in the context of Vedic society wherein members organised themselves into four classes, brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, traditionally, the kshatriya constituted the ruling and military elite. Their role was to protect society by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime, the Prakrit derivative of Kshatriya is Khatri. The administrative machinery in the Rig Vedic period functioned with a chief called Rajan whose position was not hereditary. The king was elected in an assembly, which included women. The Rajan protected the tribe and cattle, was assisted by a priest, the concept of fourfold varna system was non-existent. The hymn Purusha Sukta to the Rigveda describes the history of the four varna. Since not all dark-skinned Indians was fully regulated under the varna in the vedic society, the term rajanya unlike the word kshatriya essentially denoted the status within a lineage. Whereas kshatra, means ruling, one of the ruling order, jaiswal points out the term Brahman rarely occurs in the Rig-veda with the exception of the Purusha Sukta and may not have been used for the priestly class. Based on the authority of Panini, Patanjali, Katyayana and the Mahabharata, Jayaswal believes that Rajanya was the name of a people and that the Rajanyas were, therefore. Some examples were the Andhaka and Vrsni Rajanyas who followed the system of elected rulers and this later gave rise to the idea of kingship. In the period of the Brahmanas there was ambiguity in the position of the varna, in the Panchavimsha Brahmana, the Rajanya are placed first, followed by Brahmana then Vaishya. In Shatapatha Brahmana 13.8.3.11, the Kshatriya are placed second, in Shatapatha Brahmana 1.1.4.12 the order is—Brahmana, Vaishya, Rajanya, Shudra. The order of the brahmanical tradition—Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra—became fixed from the time of dharmasutras, the kshatriya were often considered pre-eminent in Buddhist circles. Even among Hindu societies they were sometimes at rivalry with the Brahmins, the kshatriya caste constituted an aristocracy but were not always necessarily wealthy. Kings usually belonged to this caste and it was considered their duty to acquire a knowledge of weapons in addition to cultivating their aptitude for command, the science of weaponry was one of the 13 branches of learning which every educated kshatriya male was expected to study. Both the kings suite and the army were recruited from among this caste. Many kshatriya were authorised to take up a craft or trade rather than gaining their living as professional warriors and these families still retained the privileges accorded to their caste however, which included special forms of marriage which were their prerogative
18.
Puranas
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The word Puranas literally means ancient, old, and it is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly myths, legends and other traditional lore. Composed primarily in Sanskrit, but also in languages, several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva. The Puranas genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism, the content is highly inconsistent across the Puranas, and each Purana has survived in numerous manuscripts which are themselves inconsistent. The Hindu Puranas are anonymous texts and likely the work of authors over the centuries, in contrast, most Jaina Puranas can be dated. There are 18 Maha Puranas and 18 Upa Puranas, with over 400,000 verses, the first versions of the various Puranas were likely composed between the 3rd- and 10th-century CE. The Puranas do not enjoy the authority of a scripture in Hinduism and they have been influential in the Hindu culture, inspiring major national and regional annual festivals of Hinduism. The religious practices included in them are considered Vaidika, because they do not preach initiation into Tantra, the Bhagavata Purana has been among the most celebrated and popular text in the Puranic genre, and is of non-dualistic tenor. The Puranic literature wove with the Bhakti movement in India, vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is hagiographically credited as the compiler of the Puranas. The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas and they existed in an oral form before being written down, and were incrementally modified well into the 16th century. An early occurrence of the term purana is found in the Chandogya Upanishad, translated by Patrick Olivelle as the corpus of histories, importantly, the most famous form of itihāsapurāṇaṃ is the Mahabharata. The term also appears in the Atharvaveda 11.7.24, the extant Puranas, states Coburn, are not identical to the original Puranas. In the 19th century, F. E. Pargiter believed the original Purana may date to the time of the redaction of the Vedas. Wendy Doniger, based on her study of indologists, assigns approximate dates to the various Puranas and she dates Markandeya Purana to c.250 CE, Matsya Purana to c. 250–500 CE, Vayu Purana to c.350 CE, Harivamsa and Vishnu Purana to c.450 CE, 350–950 CE, Vamana Purana to c. 450–900 CE, Kurma Purana to c, 550–850 CE, and Linga Purana to c. Of the many texts designated Puranas the most important are the Mahāpurāṇas or the major Puranas and these are said to be eighteen in number, divided into three groups of six, though they are not always counted in the same way. The difference between Upapuranas and Mahapuranas has been explained by Rajendra Hazra as, a Mahapurana is well known, the Upapuranas are eighteen in number, with disagreement as to which canonical titles belong in that list of eighteen. The Ganesha and Mudgala Puranas are devoted to Ganesha, the Devi-Bhagavata Purana, which extols the goddess Durga, has become a basic text for Devi worshipers
19.
Bhakti
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Bhakti literally means attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith or love, devotion, worship, piety. Bhakti, in Hinduism, refers to devotion and the love of a god or a representational god by a devotee. Bhakti in Indian religions is emotional devotionalism, particularly to a god or to spiritual ideas. The term also refers to a movement that arose between the 7th century and 10th century CE in India, focused on the gods Vishnu and Shiva, the Bhakti movement reached North India during the Delhi Sultanate era and grew throughout the Mughal era. It evolved the characteristics of Hinduism as the religion of the population as dhimmi under the Islamic rulers in parts of the Indian subcontinent. Bhakti-like movements also spread to other Indian religions during this period, the term bhakti, in the modern era, is used to refer to any tradition of Hindu devotionalism, including Shaivism, Vaishnavism, or Shaktism. The Bhagavata Purana is a associated with the Bhakti movement which elaborates the concept of bhakti as found in the Bhagavad Gita. Along with Hinduism, nirguni Bhakti is found in Sikhism, the Sanskrit word bhakti is derived from the root bhaj, which means divide, share, partake, participate, to belong to. The word also means attachment, devotion to, fondness for, homage, faith or love, worship, piety to something as a spiritual, the meaning of the term Bhakti is analogous to but different from Kama. Kama connotes emotional connection, sometimes with sensual devotion and erotic love, Bhakti, in contrast, is spiritual, a love and devotion to religious concepts or principles, that engages both emotion and intellection. Karen Pechelis states that the word Bhakti should not be understood as uncritical emotion, one who practices bhakti is called a bhakta. It may refer to devotion towards a teacher as guru-bhakti, or to a personal god. The term Bhakti also refers to one of several alternate spiritual paths to moksha in Hinduism, the other paths are Jnana marga, Karma marga, Rāja marga. The term bhakti has been translated as devotion in Orientalist literature. The colonial era authors variously described Bhakti as a form of mysticism or primitive religious devotion of lay people with monotheistic parallels, however, modern scholars state devotion is a misleading and incomplete translation of bhakti. Bhakti in Indian religions is not a ritualistic devotion to a god or to religion and it involves, among other things, refining ones state of mind, knowing god, participating in god, and internalizing god. Increasingly, instead of devotion, the participation is appearing in scholarly literature as a gloss for the term bhakti. David Lorenzen states that bhakti is an important term in Sikhism and Hinduism and they both share numerous concepts and core spiritual ideas, but bhakti of nirguni is particularly significant in Sikhism
20.
Lajja Gauri
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Lajjit Gauri is a goddess associated with abundance and fertility, and she has been euphemistically described as Lajja. Added to the fact that she is sitting in a position with legs open, as in during childbirth, in some cases. She is invoked for abundant crops and good progeny, a blossoming lotus replaces her head and neck, an icon often used in Tantra. The seven Chakras of human anatomy are often depicted as blossoming lotuses. Further, most fertility goddesses of the Ancient world are similarly shown headless, the arms of the goddess are bent upwards, each holding a lotus stem, held at the level of the head again depicted by the matured lotus flower. The majority of the figurines were carved in the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. Another interpretation as suggested by Dr. Ramachandra C, dhere in his book entitled, Lajja Gauri is that Lanja/Lanjika means naked, reminds us of the geographical area in Konkan, called Lanja. Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art, by Bolon, the Universal Mother, by Shanti Lal Nagar. Published by Atma Ram & Sons,1989, chapter 18, The Mother Goddess as Aditi/Lajja Gauri. Page 200 Lajja Gauri Seals and related antiquities from Kashmir Smast, Gandhara, South Asian studies, British Academy, London, sacred Display, Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia. Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair, amherst, New York, Cambria Press,2010 Dilukai Sheela na gig Baubo Nin-imma Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend, by Anna Dallapiccola. Media related to Lajja Gauri at Wikimedia Commons Aditi- Lajja Gauri - A Study Deity of Fertility and Creation - Image
21.
Sannati
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Sannati or Sannathi is a small village, located on the banks of the Bhima River in Chitapur taluk of Gulbarga District of Northern Karnataka. It is famous for the Chandrala Parameshwari Temple and the excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India in the 1986, in 1986, when the roof of the Kali temple in Chandralamba temple complex collapsed, it destroyed the idol. However it revealed four Ashokan edicts on the floor and foundation stone of the temple and these edicts were written in the Prakrit language and Brahmi script and one of them was used as foundation of the pedestal for the Kali idol. Archaeologists believe that Ranamandal was an area, spread over 86 hectares. Clay pendants, black polished pottery, Satavahana and pre-Satavahana coins, ornaments made of copper, ivory and iron, a township with paved pathways, houses, many excavated items were later shifted to Gulbarga Museum. The government has asked the Archaeological Survey of India to take up further exploration of the Ranamandal area to know the history of the region, one of the stones - the only known example of its type - is of Emperor Asoka seated on his throne. It is probably the only surviving image of the emperor, the Goddess came up to the banks of River Bhima at Hongunti, to save her devotee Chandravadani, wife of a rishi, held captive by the local king Setu Raya. Hingulambika temple is situated at Hongunti near Shabad town, the Goddess sent her Paduka from which emerged 5 bumblebees, which killed the evil king Setu Raya by drowning him in the Bhima River. Sannati Chandrala Parmeshwari and Hongunti Hingulambika are family deity of many Brahmin and Hindus families of Karnataka, Maharasta, Sannati is also the place where Rishi Markandeya meditated and composed parts of Markandeya Upanishad. A small temple has been renovated at the place where he is believed to have sat in meditation and it is said that Rishi Markandeya predates the arrival of Paduka of Chandrala Parmeshwari. Sannati can be reached by rail via Nalwar Station or Wadi Junction, some trains do not stop at Nalwar. All trains stop at Wadi Junction, Wadi to Nalwar fare by bus is Rs. 15/- Nalwar to Sannati is about Rs. 20/- by bus, and Rs.25 by sharing autos. Whole auto can be hired at Rs. 300/- max, Sannati can also be reached via Shahapur by car. About 10 rooms are available at Sannati. BSNL and Airtel Mobile networks work well, and two small canteens meet the needs of visitors, carry mosquito repellent creams - electricity is erratic and rooms are not well ventilated. Kanaganahalli is 3 km from Sannati, which is also on the banks of the river Bhima, as this is an important Buddhist site, Govt of Karnataka and ASI are planning to develop it as an international Buddhist center. It is the place where an ancient Buddhist Mahastupa site was found, additionally, Sannati has a famous temple of Chandrala Parameshwari. Kanaganahalli North Karnataka Tourism in North Karnataka Buddhism in North Karnataka Interim report on the excavations at Sannati, 1993-95, directorate of Archaeology and Museums in Mysore,1996
22.
Anasuya
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Anasuya, also known as Anusuya, was wife of an ancient Indian rishi named Atri, in Hindu mythology. In Ramayana, she appears living with her husband in a hermitage in the southern periphery of the forest of Chitrakuta. She was very pious and always practiced austerities and devotion and this allowed her to attain miraculous powers. When Sita and Rama visited her during their exile, Anusuya was very attentive to them and she was mother of Dattatreya, the sage-avatar of Trimurti Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, the irascible sage Durvasa, avatar of Shiva and Chandraatri, avatar of Brahma. She is also mother of Chandra Dev Moon and she was daughter of Sage Kardama and his wife Devahuti. Sage Kapila was her brother and teacher and she is extolled as Sati Anusuya - Anusuya, the chaste wife. Anasuya is made up of two parts, An and Asuya, an is a negative prefix and Asuya means jealousy. Hence, Anasuya could be translated into English as one who is free from jealousy or envy, the story of Anusuyas family is mentioned in Bhagavata Purana Skanda III. Sage Kardama married Devahuti, daughter of Swayambhu Manu and had nine daughters, including Anusuya, each one of whom married various Saptarishis, Sage Narada praised Anusuya in his hymns and verses, making the wives of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva jealous. They requested their husbands go and tempt her away from her husband, the Divine Trinity went to Anusuya as guests when Atri was not at home and asked her to serve them lunch in the nude. She agreed, but first splashed them each with enchanted water, the three goddesses waited for their husbands to return and when they didnt, travelled to Anusuya’s cottage to find them transformed. The Goddesses repented and at request of Anusuya, the three Gods agreed to be born as her sons, according to one version, the gods merged turning into Anasuyas three headed son Dattatreya. A Brahmin named Kaushik from Pratishthan used to visit a prostitute, in spite of being a Brahmin, when he later became infected with leprosy, the prostitute stopped seeing him, forcing him to return to his wife who still cared for him. He still longed for the affections of the prostitute and one day asked his wife to him to her. In that town, sage Mandavya had been impaled in lieu of a criminal and was lying on a spike in the forest. While being led by his wife through the deep forest at night, Kaushik happened to trip on the sage, to stop the curse, Kaushiks wife stopped the sunrise with the power of her love, creating havoc in the heavens. The gods went to Brahma for help, who in turn went to Anasuya, Anasuya not only convinced Kaushiks wife to allow the sun to rise, but also brought Kaushik back to life after the curse had run its course. Brahma was very happy with Anusuya and was born to her as Chandraatri
23.
Swaha
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In Hinduism and Buddhism, the Sanskrit lexical item svāhā is a denouement indicating the end of the mantra. In the Tibetan language, svaha is translated as so be it and is often pronounced, whenever fire sacrifices are made, svāhā is chanted. Etymologically, the term is probably from su well and the root ah to call, as a feminine noun, svāhā in the Rigveda may also mean oblation, and as oblation personified, Svāhā is a minor Goddess, and the wife of Agni. She was originally a nymph but became immortal after marrying Agni, in some versions, she is one of the many divine mothers of Kartikeya. She is also the mother of Aagneya - the daughter of Agni and she is considered to be a daughter of Daksha. She is thought to preside over burnt offerings, in the Mahabharata Vana Parva, Markandeya narrates her story to the Pandavas. Svaha was the daughter of Daksha and she fell in love with the god of fire, Agni, and was pursuing him. Agni however, did not notice her, Agni presided over the sacrificial rituals of the Saptarshis. The god became highly besotted with the wives of the Saptarshis who were so attractive and beautiful, finally, Agni could not bear the guilt of longing for wives belonging to someone else and he went to the forests to perform penances. Svaha followed him and realised his desire and she took the forms of the wives of the Saptarshis (though she was unable to take the form of Arundhati, wife of Vashishtha, and approached Agni. Agni and Svaha spent many loving moments in the forest
24.
Shiva
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Shiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme God within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism, Shiva is the transformer within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. In Shaivism tradition, Shiva is the Supreme being who creates, protects, in the goddess tradition of Hinduism called Shaktism, the goddess is described as supreme, yet Shiva is revered along with Vishnu and Brahma. A goddess is stated to be the energy and creative power of each and he is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism. At the highest level, Shiva is regarded as formless, limitless, transcendent and unchanging absolute Brahman, Shiva has many benevolent and fearsome depictions. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives a life on Mount Kailash as well as a householder with wife Parvati. In his fierce aspects, he is depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also known as Adiyogi Shiva, regarded as the god of yoga, meditation. Shiva is usually worshipped in the form of Lingam. Shiva is a deity, revered widely by Hindus, in India, Nepal. The Sanskrit word Śiva means, states Monier Williams, auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, the roots of Śiva in folk etymology is śī which means in whom all things lie, pervasiveness and va which means embodiment of grace. The word Shiva is used as an adjective in the Rig Veda, as an epithet for several Rigvedic deities, the term Shiva also connotes liberation, final emancipation and the auspicious one, this adjective sense of usage is addressed to many deities in Vedic layers of literature. The term evolved from the Vedic Rudra-Shiva to the noun Shiva in the Epics, Sharma presents another etymology with the Sanskrit root śarv-, which means to injure or to kill, interprets the name to connote one who can kill the forces of darkness. The Sanskrit word śaiva means relating to the god Shiva, and it is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism. Some authors associate the name with the Tamil word śivappu meaning red, noting that Shiva is linked to the Sun, the Vishnu sahasranama interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings, The Pure One, and the One who is not affected by three Guṇas of Prakṛti. Shiva is known by names such Viswanathan, Mahadeva, Mahesha, Maheshvara, Shankara, Shambhu, Rudra, Hara, Trilochana, Devendra, Neelakanta, Subhankara, Trilokinatha. The highest reverence for Shiva in Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahādeva, Maheśvara, Sahasranama are medieval Indian texts that list a thousand names derived from aspects and epithets of a deity. There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, the version appearing in Book 13 of the Mahabharata provides one such list
25.
Kama
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Kama means desire, wish, longing in Indian literature. Kama is one of the four goals of life in Hindu traditions. It is considered an essential and healthy goal of life when pursued without sacrificing the other three goals, Dharma, Artha and Moksha. Together, these four aims of life are called Puruṣārtha, Kama means “desire, wish or longing”. In contemporary literature, kama refers usually to sexual desire, however, the term also refers to any sensory enjoyment, emotional attraction and aesthetic pleasure such as from arts, dance, music, painting, sculpture and nature. The concept kama is found in some of the earliest known verses in Vedas, for example, Book 10 of Rig Veda describes the creation of the universe from nothing by the great heat. The Mahabharata, for example, provides one of the definitions of kama. Kama often implies the short form of the word kamana, Kama, however, is more than kamana. Vatsyayana, the author of Kamasutra, describes kama as happiness that is a manasa vyapara, experiencing harmonious music is kama, as is being inspired by natural beauty, the aesthetic appreciation of a work of art, and admiring with joy something created by another human being. Kama Sutra, in its discourse on kama, describes forms of art, dance. Karl Potter describes kama as an attitude and capacity, a little girl who hugs her teddy bear with a smile is experiencing kama, as are two lovers in embrace. During these experiences, the person connects and identifies the beloved as part of oneself and feels more complete, fulfilled and this, in the Indian perspective, is kāma. Hindery notes the inconsistent and diverse exposition of kama in various ancient texts of India, both Sita and Rama, frequently express their unwillingness and inability to live without the other. Gavin Flood explains kama as “love” without violating dharma, artha, in Hinduism, kama is regarded as one of the four proper and necessary goals of human life, the others being Dharma, Artha and Moksha. Ancient Indian literature emphasizes that dharma precedes and is essential, if dharma is ignored, artha and kama lead to social chaos. Vatsyayana in Kama Sutra recognizes relative value of three goals as follows, artha precedes kama, while dharma precedes both kama and artha. Vatsyayana, in Chapter 2 of Kama sutra, presents a series of philosophical objections argued against kama, the pursuit of pleasure, claim objectors, encourages individuals to commit unrighteous deeds, bring distress, carelessness, levity and suffering later in life. These objections were then answered by Vatsyayana, with the declaration that kama is as necessary to human beings as food, just like good food is necessary for the well being of the body, good pleasure is necessary for healthy existence of a human being, suggests Vatsyayana
26.
Nakshatra
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Nakshatra is the term for lunar mansion in Hindu astrology. A nakshatra is one of 28 sectors along the ecliptic and their names are related to the most prominent asterisms in the respective sectors. This version may have been called Meshādi or the start of Aries, but some Hindu calendars are based on the older versions. The ecliptic is divided into each of the nakshatras eastwards starting from this point, the number of nakshatras reflects the number of days in a sidereal month, the width of a nakshatra traversed by the Moon in about one day. Each nakshatra is further subdivided into four quarters, the nakshatras of traditional bhartiya astronomy are based on a list of 28 asterisms found in the Atharvaveda and also in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The first astronomical text that lists them is the Vedanga Jyotisha, in classical Hindu scriptures, the creation of the nakshatras is attributed to Daksha. They are personified as daughters of the deity and as wives of Chandra, the Moon god, or alternatively the daughters of Kashyapa, the brother of Daksha. Each of the nakshatras is governed as lord by one of the nine graha in the sequence, Ketu, Shukra, Surya, Chandra, Mangala, Rahu, Brihaspati, Shani. This cycle repeats itself three times to cover all 27 nakshatras, the lord of each nakshatra determines the planetary period known as the dasha, which is considered of major importance in forecasting the life path of the individual in Hindu astrology. In Vedic Sanskrit, the term nákṣatra may refer to any heavenly body, the classical concept of a lunar mansion is first found in the Atharvaveda, and becomes the primary meaning of the term in Classical Sanskrit. In the early chapters, the author, Mayasura or Mayan and he writes that a prana is a duration of 4 seconds. He then continues with a discussion of a number of units with progressively long durations made up of the shorter time units all composed of a number of pranas. Amongst those time units are something he calls nakshatra, for example,15 pranas are in a minute,900 pranas in an hour,21600 pranas in a day,583,200 pranas in a nakshatra. According to Mayan, a nakshatra is a unit with a duration of 27 days. This 27-day time cycle has been taken to mean a group of stars. The relationship to the stars really has to do with the periodicity with which the Moon travels over time, hence, the stars are more like numbers on a clock through which the hands of time pass. This concept was discovered by Dr. Jessie Mercay in her research on Surya Siddhanta, the classical list of 27 nakshatras is first found in the Vedanga Jyotisha, a text dated to the 600-700 BCE. The nakshatra system predates the Hellenistic astronomy which became prevalent from about the 2nd century CE, in Hindu astronomy, there was an older tradition of 28 Nakshatras which were used as celestial markers in the heavens
27.
Somnath temple
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The Somnath temple located in Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, India, is believed to be the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. It is an important pilgrimage and tourist spot of Gujarat, destroyed and reconstructed several times in the past, the present temple was reconstructed in Chalukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951. The reconstruction was envisioned by Vallabhbhai Patel and was completed under K. M. Munshi, the temple is considered sacred due to the various legends connected to it. Somnath means Lord of the Soma, an epithet of Shiva, the Somnath temple is known as the Shrine Eternal, following a book of K. M. Munshi by this title and his narration of the temples destruction and reconstruction many times in history. According to tradition, the Shivalinga in Somnath is one of the twelve jyotirlingas in India, the jyotirlingas are taken as the supreme, undivided reality out of which Shiva partly appears. Each of the twelve jyotirlinga sites take the name of a different manifestation of Shiva, at all these sites, the primary image is a lingam representing the beginning-less and endless stambha, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva. In addition to the one at Somnath, the others are at Varanasi, Rameswaram, Dwarka, the site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni sangam. Soma, the Moon god, is believed to have lost his lustre due to a curse, the result is the waxing and waning of the moon, no doubt an allusion to the waxing and waning of the tides at this sea shore location. The name of the town Prabhas, meaning lustre, as well as the alternative names Someshvar, according to popular tradition documented by J. Gordon Melton, the first Siva temple at Somanath is believed to have been built at some unknown time in the past. The second temple is said to have built at the same site by the Yadava kings of Vallabhi around 649 CE. In 725 CE, Al-Junayd, the Arab governor of Sindh is said to have destroyed the temple as part of his invasions of Gujarat. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II is said to have constructed the temple in 815 CE. However, there is no record of an attack on Somnath by Al-Junayd. Nagabhata II is known to have visited tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara, the Chaulukya king Mularaja possibly built the first temple at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated a smaller earlier temple. In 1024, during the reign of Bhima I, the prominent Turkic ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, plundering the Somnath temple and he took away a booty of 20 million dinars. Historians expect the damage to the temple to have been minimal because there are records of pilgrimages to the temple in 1038, however, powerful legends with intricate detail developed in the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmuds raid, which electrified the Muslim world according to scholar Meenakshi Jain. The temple at the time of Mahmuds attack appears to have been a wooden structure, kumarapala rebuilt it in excellent stone and studded it with jewels, according to an inscription in 1169. In 1299, Alauddin Khiljis army under the leadership of Ulugh Khan defeated Karandev II of the Vaghela dynasty, kanhadadeva the Raja of Jalore later defeated the Khilji army, recovered the broken pieces of the lingam and freed the prisoners
28.
Prajapati
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In Hinduism, Prajapati lord of people is a group of Hindu deities presiding over procreation and protection of life, and thereby a King of Kings. Prajapati is a Vedic deity presiding over procreation, and the protection of life and he was mentioned as Daksha in Hiranyagharbhasuktham as the creator deity emerging from supreme god vishvakarman above the other Vedic deities in RV10 and in Brahmana literature. According to later beliefs in the post-Vedic Era, the Prajapatis were elected democratically, at first Lord Bràhma was elected as Prajapati, Lord Vishnu was then elected democratically/unanimously as Prajapati by all the Rishis and subjects of that era and sat on the throne of Prajapati. Thereafter, Lord Shankar or Rudras were elected as Prajapatis, the throne of Prajapati succeeded further and there were about 26 Prajapatis, as mentioned in later puranas In later times, he is identified with the personifications of Time, Fire, the Sun, etc. In classical Puranic Hinduism, Hiranyagarbha is a name of Brahma, so called because he was born from a golden egg, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 8.8.16 cites Vishvakarman as the leader of the prajāpatis, the sons of Lord Brahmā who generate progeny. The Prajapati community come brahmana warriors are seen as the descendants of Prajapati, Lord Brahmā, Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Prajapati also means protector & preserver. The Mahabharata translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, Book 2, Sabha Parva, Lokapala Sabhakhayana Parva, section, a possible connection between Prajapati and the Prōtogonos of the Greek Orphic tradition has been made by several scholars. It has been argued that the name of /PRA-JĀ-pati/ is etymologically equivalent to that of the god at Kolophōn
29.
Yoga
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Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a variety of Yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga, the chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE, Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra. Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th, in the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more physical exercise, it has a meditative. One of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics. Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as an intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma. On December 1,2016, Yoga was listed as UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage, in Sanskrit, the word yoga comes from the root yuj which means to add, to join, to unite, or to attach in its most common senses. By figurative extension from the yoking or harnessing of oxen or horses, all further developments of the sense of this word are post-Vedic. More prosaic moods such as exertion, endeavour, zeal, there are very many compound words containing yoga in Sanskrit. Yoga can take on such as connection, contact, union, method, application, addition. In simpler words, Yoga also means combined, thus, bhaktiyoga means devoted attachment in the monotheistic Bhakti movement. The term kriyāyoga has a sense, meaning connection with a verb. But the same compound is given a technical meaning in the Yoga Sutras, designating the practical aspects of the philosophy. In the context of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the root yuj samādhau is considered by commentators as the correct etymology. In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras, according to Dasgupta, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga or yuj samādhau. Someone who practices yoga or follows the philosophy with a high level of commitment is called a yogi or yogini
30.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
31.
Daksha yajna
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In Hindu mythology, Daksha-Yajna or Daksha-Yaga is an important event, which is narrated in various Hindu scriptures. It refers to a yajna organized by Daksha, where his daughter Sati immolated herself, the wrath of god Shiva, Satis husband, thereafter destroyed the sacrifice. The tale is also called Daksha-Yajna-Nasha, the story forms the basis of the establishment of the Shakti Peethas, temples of the Hindu Divine Mother. It is also becomes a prelude to the story of Parvati, the mythology is mainly told in the Vayu Purana. It is also mentioned in the Kasi Kanda of the Skanda Purana, Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, and Matsya Purana also detail the incident. Daksha was one of the Prajapati, son of Brahma, the name Daksha means skilled one. Daksha had two wives, Prasoothi and Panchajani, Sati was his youngest daughter, born from Prasoothi, she was the pet child of Daksha and he always carried her with him. Sati is also called Dakshayani as she followed Daksha’s path, this is derived from the Sanskrit words daksha, Sati, the youngest daughter of Daksha, was deeply in love with the god Shiva and wished to become his wife. Her worship and devotion of Shiva strengthened her immense desire to become his wife, however, Daksha did not like his daughter’s yearning for Shiva, mainly because he was a Prajapati and the son of the god Brahma, his daughter Sati was a royal princess. They were wealthy nobility and their imperial royal lifestyle was entirely different from that of Shiva, as an emperor, Daksha wanted to increase his influence and power by making marriage alliances with powerful empires and influential sages and gods. Shiva on the other led a very modest life. He lived among the downtrodden, wore a tiger skin, smeared ashes on his body, had thick locks of matted hair and his abode was Mount Kailash in the Himalayas. He embraced all kinds of living beings and did not make any distinction between good souls and bad souls, the Bhutaganas, his followers, consisted of all kinds of ghosts, demons, ghouls and goblins. He wandered though garden and graveyard alike, as a consequence, Daksha had aversion towards Shiva being his daughter’s companion. However unlike Daksha, Sati loved Shiva as she had the revelation that Shiva was the Supreme God, Sati won Shiva as her husband by undergoing severe austerities. Despite Dakshas disappointment, Sati married Shiva, once Brahma conducted a huge yajna, where all the Prajapatis, gods and kings of the world were invited. Shiva and Sati were also called on to participate in the yajna, all of them came for the yajna and sat in the ceremonial place. When he arrived, everyone in the yajna, with the exception of Brahma, Shiva and Sati, Brahma being Dakshas father and Shiva being Dakshas son-in-law were considered superior in stature to Daksha
32.
Shaktism
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Shaktism is a major tradition of Hinduism, wherein the metaphysical reality is considered feminine and the Devi is supreme. It includes a variety of goddesses, all considered aspects of the supreme goddess. Shaktism has different sub-traditions, ranging from those focussed on gracious Lakshmi to fierce Kali, the Sruti and Smriti texts of Hinduism are an important historical framework of the Shaktism tradition. In addition, it reveres the texts Devi Mahatmya, the Devi-Bhagavata Purana, the Devi Mahatmya in particular, is considered in Shaktism to be as important as the Bhagavad Gita. Shaktism is known for its various sub-traditions of Tantra, as well as a galaxy of goddesses with respective systems and it consists of the Vidyapitha and Kulamārga. The pantheon of goddesses in Shaktism grew after the decline of Buddhism in India, wherein Hindu and Buddhist goddesses were combined to form the Mahavidya, the most common aspects of Devi found in Shaktism include Durga, Kali, Amba, Lakshmi, Parvati and Tripurasundari. The goddess-focussed tradition is popular in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Nepal and the neighboring regions. Yet, they are declared equivalent aspects of gender neutral Brahman, of Prajapati, the goddesses often mentioned in the Vedic layers of text include the Ushas, Vac, Sarasvati, Prithivi, Nirriti, Shraddha. Goddesses such as Uma appear in the Upanishads as another aspect of Brahman, hymns to goddesses are in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata, particularly in the later added Harivamsa section of it. The archaeological and textual evidence implies, states Thomas Coburn, that the Goddess had become as much a part of the Hindu tradition, as God, by about the third or fourth century. The literature on Shakti theology grew in ancient India, climaxing in one of the most important texts of Shaktism called the Devi Mahatmya, the Devi-Mahatmya is not the earliest literary fragment attesting to the existence of devotion to a goddess figure, states Thomas B. Coburn – a professor of Religious Studies, but it is surely the earliest in which the object of worship is conceptualized as Goddess, with a capital G. Other important texts of Shaktism include the Shakta Upanishads, as well as Shakta-oriented Upa Puranic literature such as the Devi Purana and Kalika Purana, the Lalita Sahasranama. The Tripura Upanishad is historically the most complete introduction to Shakta Tantrism, along with the Tripura Upanishad, the Tripuratapini Upanishad has attracted scholarly bhasya in the second half of 2nd-millennium, such as by Bhaskararaya, and by Ramanand. These texts link the Shakti Tantra tradition as a Vedic attribute, Shaktas conceive the Goddess as the supreme, ultimate, eternal reality of all existence, or same as the Brahman concept of Hinduism. She is considered to be simultaneously the source of all creation, its embodiment and the energy that animates and governs it, according to V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar – a professor of Indian history, in Shaktism theology Brahman is static Shakti and Shakti is dynamic Brahman. Shaktism views the Devi as the source, essence and substance of everything in creation and its texts such as the Devi-Bhagavata Purana states, I am Manifest Divinity, Unmanifest Divinity, and Transcendent Divinity. I am Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as well as Saraswati, Lakshmi, I am the Sun and I am the Stars, and I am also the Moon
33.
Shaivism
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Shaivism is one of the major traditions within Hinduism that reveres Shiva as the Supreme Being or its metaphysical concept of Brahman. The followers of Shaivism are called Shaivas or Saivas, like much of Hinduism, the Shaiva have many sub-traditions, ranging from devotional dualistic theism such as Shaiva Siddhanta to yoga-oriented monistic non-theism such as Kashmiri Shaivism. It considers both the Vedas and the Agama texts as important sources of theology, Shaivism has ancient roots, traceable in the Vedic literature of 2nd millennium BCE, but this is in the form of the Vedic deity Rudra. In the early centuries of the era is the first clear evidence of Pāśupata Shaivism. Both devotional and monistic Shaivism became popular in the 1st millennium CE and it arrived in Southeast Asia shortly thereafter, leading to thousands of Shaiva temples on the islands of Indonesia as well as Cambodia and Vietnam, co-evolving with Buddhism in these regions. In the contemporary era, Shaivism is one of the aspects of Hinduism. Shaivism theology ranges from Shiva being the creator, preserver, destroyer to being the same as the Atman within oneself and it is closely related to Shaktism, and some Shaiva worship in Shiva and Shakti temples. It is the Hindu tradition that most accepts ascetic life and emphasizes yoga, Shaivism is one of the largest traditions within Hinduism. Shiva literally means kind, friendly, gracious, or auspicious, as a proper name, it means The Auspicious One. The word Shiva is used as an adjective in the Rig Veda, as an epithet for several Rigvedic deities, the term Shiva also connotes liberation, final emancipation and the auspicious one, this adjective sense of usage is addressed to many deities in Vedic layers of literature. The term evolved from the Vedic Rudra-Shiva to the noun Shiva in the Epics, the Sanskrit word śaiva or Shaiva means relating to the god Shiva, while the related beliefs, practices, history, literature and sub-traditions constitute Shaivism. The reverence for Shiva is one of the traditions, found widely across India, Sri Lanka. While Shiva is revered broadly, Hinduism itself is a complex religion, Shaivism is a major tradition within Hinduism, with a theology that is predominantly related to the Hindu god Shiva. Shaivism has many different sub-traditions with regional variations and differences in philosophy, Shaivism has a vast literature with different philosophical schools, ranging from nondualism, dualism, and mixed schools. The origins of Shaivism are unclear and a matter of debate among scholars, some trace the origins to the Indus Valley civilization, which reached its peak around 2500–2000 BCE. Archeological discoveries show seals that suggest a deity that appears like Shiva. Of these is the Pashupati seal, which scholars interpreted as someone seated in a meditating yoga pose surrounded by animals. This Pashupati seal has been interpreted by scholars as a prototype of Shiva
34.
Shakti Peetha
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The Shakti Peetha are significant shrines and pilgrimage destinations in Shaktism, the goddess-focused Hindu tradition. There are 51 or 108 Shakti peethas by various accounts, of which between 4 to 18 are named as Maha in medieval Hindu texts. Most of these places of goddess worship are in India, but some are in Nepal, Bangladesh. Various legends explain how the Shakti peetha came into existence, the sites where these portions of Sati goddess fell, are the Shakti peetha. Lord Brahma performed a yajna to please Shakti and Shiva, Goddess Shakti emerged, separating from Shiva and helped Brahma in the creation of the universe. Brahma decided to give Shakti back to Shiva, therefore, his son Daksha performed several yagnas to obtain Shakti as his daughter in the form of Sati. It was then decided that Sati was brought into this world with the motive of getting married to Shiva. However, due to Lord Shivas curse to Brahma that his head was cut off due to his lie in front of Shiva, Daksha started hating Lord Shiva and decided not to let Lord Shiva. However, Sati got attracted to Shiva and finally one day Shiva and this marriage only increased Dakshas hatred towards Lord Shiva. Daksha performed a yagna with a desire to revenge on Lord Shiva near Munimandala present Muramalla Andhra Pradesh. Daksha invited all the deities to the yajna except Lord Shiva, the fact that she was not invited did not deter Sati from attending the yagna. She expressed her desire to attend the yagna to Shiva, who tried his best to dissuade her from going, Shiva eventually relented and Sati went to the yagna. Sati, being an uninvited guest, was not given any respect at the yagna, Sati was unable to bear her fathers insults toward her husband, so she immolated herself. He came there and started fighting him, still immersed in grief, Shiva picked up the remains of Satis body, and performed the Tandava, the celestial dance of destruction, across all creation. The other Gods requested Vishnu to intervene to stop this destruction, towards which Vishnu used the Sudarshana Chakra, the various parts of the body fell at several spots all through the Indian subcontinent and formed sites which are known as Shakti Peethas today. At all the Shakti Peethas, the Goddess Shakti is accompanied by her consort, Shakti is an aspect of the Supreme Being Adi parashakti, the mother of the trimurti, the holy trinity in Hindu religion & scriptures. The history of Daksha yagna and Shaktis self immolation had immense significance in shaping the ancient Sanskrit literature and it led to the development of the concept of Shakti Peethas and there by strengthening Shaktism. Enormous stories in Puranas & other Hindu religious books took the Daksha yagna as the reason for its origin
35.
Parvati
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Parvati, also known as Urvi/Renu, is the Hindu goddess of fertility, love and devotion, as well as of divine strength and power. She is the gentle and nurturing aspect of the Hindu goddess Shakti and she is the mother goddess in Hinduism, and has many attributes and aspects. Each of her aspects is expressed with a different name, giving her over 100 names in regional Hindu stories of India, along with Lakshmi and Saraswati, she forms the trinity of Hindu goddesses. Parvati is the wife of the Hindu god Shiva - the protector and regenerator of universe and she is the daughter of the mountain king Himavan and mother Mena. Parvati is the mother of Hindu deities Ganesha and Kartikeya, some communities also believe her to be the sister of the god Vishnu and the river-goddess Ganga. With Shiva, Parvati is a deity in the Shaiva sect. In Hindu belief, she is the energy and power of Shiva, and she is the cause of a bond that connects all beings. In Hindu temples dedicated to her and Shiva, she is represented as the argha or yoni. She is found extensively in ancient Indian literature, and her statues and iconography grace Hindu temples all over South Asia, parvata is one of the Sanskrit words for mountain, Parvati derives her name from being the daughter of king Himavan and mother Mena. King Parvat is considered lord of the mountains and the personification of the Himalayas, Parvati is known by many names in Hindu literature. Other names which associate her with mountains are Shailaja, Adrija or Nagajaa or Shailaputri, Haimavathi, the Lalita sahasranama contains a listing of 1,000 names of Parvati. Two of Parvatis most famous epithets are Uma and Aparna, the name Uma is used for Sati in earlier texts, but in the Ramayana, it is used as a synonym for Parvati. In the Harivamsa, Parvati is referred to as Aparna and then addressed as Uma and she is also Ambika, Shakti, Mataji, Maheshwari, Durga, Bhairavi, Bhavani, Shivaradni, and many hundreds of others. Parvati is also the goddess of love and devotion, or Kamakshi, regional stories of Gauri suggest an alternate origin for Gauris name and complexion. In parts of India, Gauris skin color is golden or yellow in honor of her being the goddess of ripened corn/harvest, some scholars hold that Parvati does not explicitly appear in Vedic literature, though the Kena Upanishad contains a goddess called Uma-Haimavati. She appears as the shakti, or essential power, of the Supreme Brahman. Her primary role is as a mediator who reveals the knowledge of Brahman to the Vedic trinity of Agni, Vayu, and Indra, Sati-Parvati appears in the epic period, as both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata present Parvati as Shivas wife. However, it is not until the plays of Kalidasa and the Puranas that the stories of Sati-Parvati, Kinsley adds that Parvati may have emerged from legends of non-aryan goddesses that lived in mountains
36.
Ganesha
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Ganesha, also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains and Buddhists, although he is known by many attributes, Ganeshas elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences, as the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions, several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography. Ganesha emerged as a deity in the 4th and 5th centuries AD, during the Gupta period. He was formally included among the five deities of Smartism in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity, the principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Brahma Purana and Brahmanda Purana are other two Puranic genre encyclopedic texts that deal with Ganesha, Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name, the name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, the term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name Lord of the Gaņas to mean Lord of Hosts or Lord of created categories, Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning group, and pati, meaning ruler or lord. Though the earliest mention of the word Ganapati is found in hymn 2.23.1 of the 2nd-millennium BCE Rigveda, it is however uncertain that the Vedic term referred specifically to Ganesha. The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha, Vinayaka, Vighnarāja, Dvaimātura, Gaṇādhipa, Ekadanta, Heramba, Lambodara, Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak, the names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara refers to his primary function in Hinduism as the master and remover of obstacles. A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai or Pillaiyar, a. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a child while pillaiyar means a noble child. He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify tooth or tusk, also elephant tooth or tusk. Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have meant the young of the elephant
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Kartikeya
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Karthikeya is the Hindu god of war. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the devas and he is also the primary deity of the Kaumaram sect of Hinduism. Murugan is worshiped primarily in areas of Tamil speaking populations, including Tamil Nadu in India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Réunion. It is one of the few sites in Sri Lanka that is venerated by, Hindu Sri Lankan Tamils, Sinhalese people. In northern India, he is known as Kartikeya. He is known as Subrahmanya, Muruga or Palani Andava in Tamil Nadu and he was also known as Mahasena and the Kadamba dynasty worshiped him by this name. The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra, the Taittiriya Aranyaka contains the Gayatri Mantra for Shanmukha. The Chandogya Upanishad refers to Skanda as the way leads to wisdom. Baudhāyanas Dharmasūtra calls Skanda Mahāsena Having a Great Army and Subrahmaṇya beloved of Brahmins, the āraṇyaparvan of the Mahabharata relates the legend of Kartikeya Skanda in considerable detail. The Skanda Purana is devoted to the narrative of Kartikeya, the Upanishads also constantly make a reference to a Supreme Being called Guha, the indweller. The Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai is a devotional poem included in the Pattuppāṭṭu ten idylls of the age of the third Sangam. In the Tirumurukāṟtruuppaṭai, he is described as a god of youth, His face shines a myriad rays light. Other Sangam period works in Tamil that refer to Murugan in detail include the Paripāṭal, the Akananūru, the first elaborate account of Kartikeyas origin occurs in the Mahabharata. In a complicated story, he is said to have been born from Agni and Svaha, the actual wives then become the Pleiades. The Lord asked him what kind of boon he required, in reply to which he asked that no power in the universe should destroy him except the Lords power itself. Lord Shiva granted the boon to him, after succeeding in his penance, Suraabaathman began to torture humans as well as the devas. He then conquered the Indraloka and made Indra captive, one day, upon losing her husband as a prisoner, Indraani prayed to Lord Shiva in earth to help her. Meanwhile, Ajaamukhi was in search of Indraani to produce her as a prize for her brother Suraabaathman as a result of victory of their war against the devas, Ajaamughi along with her servant finally found Indraani praying to Lord Shiva
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Yajna
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Yajna literally means sacrifice, devotion, worship, offering, and refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature called Brahmanas, as well as Yajurveda, the tradition has evolved from offering oblations and libations into sacred fire to symbolic offerings in the presence of sacred fire. Yajna rituals-related texts have been called the Karma-kanda portion of the Vedic literature, the proper completion of Yajna-like rituals was the focus of Mimansa school of Hindu philosophy. Yajna have continued to play a role in a Hindus rites of passage. Modern major Hindu temple ceremonies, Hindu community celebrations, or monastic initiations may also include Yajna vedic rites, the word yajna appears in the early Vedic literature, composed in 2nd millennium BCE. In Rigveda, Yajurveda and others, it means worship, devotion to anything, prayer and praise, an act of worship or devotion, a form of offering or oblation, and sacrifice. In post-Vedic literature, the term meant any form of rite, a Yajna included major ceremonial devotions, with or without a sacred fire, sometimes with feasts and community events. It is derived, states Nigal, from the Sanskrit verb yaj, the Sanskrit word is related to the Avestan term yasna of Zoroastrianism. Unlike the Vedic yajna, the Yasna is the name of a religious service, not a class of rituals. Yajna has been a part of an individual or social ritual since the Vedic times, when the ritual fire – the divine Agni, the god of fire and the messenger of gods – were deployed in a Yajna, mantras were chanted. The hymns and songs sung and oblations offered into the fire were a form of hospitality for the Vedic gods, the Vedangas, or auxiliary sciences attached to the Vedic literature, define Yajna as follows, Definition of a Vedic sacrifice — Apastamba Yajna Paribhasa-sutras 1. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad in verse 1.5.14, for example, uses the analogy of Yajna materials to explain the means to see ones soul and God, with inner rituals and without external rituals. Vedic yajnas are performed by four priests of the Vedic priesthood, the hotar, the adhvaryu, the udgatar. The functions associated with the priests were, The Hotri recites invocations, the Adhvaryu is the priests assistant and is in charge of the physical details of the ritual like measuring the ground, building the altar explained in the Yajurveda. The Udgatri is the chanter of hymns set to melodies and music drawn from the Samaveda, the udgatar, like the hotar, chants the introductory, accompanying and benediction hymns. The Brahmin is the superintendent of the performance, and is responsible for correcting mistakes by means of supplementary verses. There were usually one, or three, fires lit in the center of the offering ground, oblations are offered into the fire. Among the ingredients offered as oblations in the yajna are ghee, milk, grains, cakes, the duration of a yajna depends on its type, some last only a few minutes whereas, others are performed over a period of hours, days or even months
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Bhadrakali
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Bhadrakālī is a Hindu goddess popular in Southern India. She is one of the forms of the Great Goddess mentioned in the Devi Mahatmyam. Bhadrakali is the form of Devi worshipped in Kerala as Sri Bhadrakali. In Kerala she is seen as the auspicious and fortunate form of Kali who protects the good and this goddess is represented with three eyes, and four, twelve, or eighteen hands. She carries a number of weapons, with flames flowing from her head, and her worship is also associated with the Tantric tradition of the Matrikas as well as the tradition of the ten Mahavidyas and falls under the broader umbrella of Shaktism. The Sanskrit word Bhadra Kali therefore can be translated to Hindi as Mahamaya Kali, there are at least three traditional versions regarding the origin-incarnations or avatar of Bhadrakali. The first version is from Devi Mahatmyam and basically a part of Shaktism, the second is associated with the Daksha and Dakshayaga, from the more Shaivism related tradition, and glimpses of this version can be seen in some Puranas. The third and the equally most famous one is her birth as the daughter of Shiva to liberate the world from demon Daruka. According to the Vayu Purana and the Mahabharata, Bhadrakali came into being by Devis wrath, according to Tantra Rahasya, she arose from the North face of Shiva, which is blue in color and with three eyes. The demon Darika, after intense ascetic penances and practices, secured a boon from Lord Brahma that he would be invincible, soon afterwards he began to harass the world and commit numerous crimes. When Lord Shiva came to know about the misdeeds of demon Darika and he opened his fiery third eye and the massive flaming form of Bhadrakali emerged. She was huge, wore a look and had countless hands. Shiva ordered Bhadra Kali to destroy Darika and she went through the forest, when Darika saw Bhadrakali, he laughed and dismissed her, forgetting that his boon of invincibility did not prevent him from being killed by a woman. After a fierce battle, Bhadrakali and her assistants finally finished him off, according to the Kerala traditions, the events described in the Markandeya Purana associated with Bhadrakali took place in Kerala, near Madayi in the Kannur District. Bhadrakali temples in Kerala commemorate this event during festivals and Bhadrakali is worshipped as the daughter of Lord Shiva. According to the Markandeya Purana, her worship purifies the devotee and she is seen to protect the honour of women and to bestow all spiritual knowledge. In Kerala, she called Virabhadra her brother and refused to be treated by him when she was attacked by the deity Vasoorimala and she said that a brother must not touch the face of his sister. Thus, mild pockmarks are sometimes visible on her face in some Keralan depictions of her
40.
Gana
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The word gaṇa in Sanskrit and Pali means flock, troop, multitude, number, tribe, series or class. It can also be used to refer to a body of attendants, the word gana can also refer to councils or assemblies convened to discuss matters of religion or other topics. In Hinduism, the Gaṇas are attendants of Shiva and live on Mount Kailash, Ganesha was chosen as their leader by Shiva, hence Ganeshas title gaṇeśa or gaṇapati, lord or leader of the ganas. In Hinduism, the gana are attendants who reside in chthonic and liminal locations such as cemeteries, the gana also attend Shiva on Mount Kailash. The story of creation of Virabhadra from the Shivas lock and destruction of Daksha by Virabhadra, many books of Sanskrit literature used ganas and sanghas. Bhishmas answers to these questions were recorded in the form of shlokas from 16 –32 in Shanti Parva, the representative members of clans were known as ganas and their assembly as sanghas, there chief as ganadhipati or Ganesha and Ganapati. Sangam literature of Tamil describes the offerings for Ganas, Buddhist books like ‘Pali-pitaka’, Majjhamnikaya, mahabagga, Avadana shataka mentioned ganas and sanghas. During Buddhas period India had 116 republics or ganasanghas, in Buddhist times, Gaṇas were assemblies of the Sanghas, early democratic republics known as Gaṇa-rājyas, literally rule of the assembly, a term paralleling demo-kratia or soviet republic. The term was revived in Bhārata Gaṇarājya, the name of the Republic of India. Ganachakra Ganesha Genos The Ganas, Hooligans of Heaven
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Kottiyoor Vysakha Mahotsavam
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Kottiyoor Ulsavam or Kottiyoor Vysakha Mahotsavam is a 27-day annual pilgrimage observed by Hindus commemorating the Mythology of Daksha Yaga. The pilgrimage is similar to the Kumbh Mela of Prayag, where ablutions are performed, the temple and grounds are also known as Dakshina Kasi. In Kottiyoor, there are two shrines on the banks of the Vavali river, on the west bank sits the Thruchherumana Vadakkeshwaram Temple, which is a nalukettu temple complex. On the east bank, there is a shrine called Akkare Kottiyoor. This is opened only during the Vysakha Mahotsavam, during the Vysakha pilgrimage, puja is performed in a temporary temple in the same prehistoric Vedic location. Only temporary thatch huts, which are removed after the festival, are built, every year, thousands of pilgrims come to the Yajna bhoomi. Yajna shala has a Swayambhu Shivalinga, where ablutions are performed, the Akkare Kottiyoor temple, where the yajna takes place, has no Sreekovil/Garbhagriha, instead, it is located on a raised platform made of river stones named Manithara. The temple is located at the center of a pond that is the origin of a spring, from the pond, water flows towards the Vavali river to the west. The entire shrine looks like Shivalinga itself if viewed from the sky, devotees circumambulate the shrine within the pond, mostly in the rain. There is another raised platform beside the main shrine, called Ammarakal Thara. Finally, there is a giant Jayanti vilakku and a covered by a palmyra leaf umbrella there. It is believed that Sati immolates herself on Ammarakal Thara, the Ikkare Kottiyoor temple and Akkare Kottiyoor temple are dedicated to Mahadeva. The Vavali River flows between the shrines, the Ikkare Kottiyoor temple is believed to have been created by Parashurama, whereas the Akkara Kottiyoor temple is a Swayam bhu, which means naturally formed. The system of rites and rituals of the temple were developed by Sankaracharya, the festival occurs from the Swati Nakshatra of the Saka calendar month of Vaisakha to Chitra Nakshatra of Jyaistha month. This is equivalent to the Malayalam calendar months of Medam-Edavam to Edavam-Mithunam or the Gregorian months of May–June to June–July, the pilgrimage occurs during the monsoon season when there is abundant rainfall in the region. The flow of the Vavali river water is suitable for ablutions, the climate during the pilgrimage is moderate to slightly cold. Only Vedic hymns are recited and priestly rites and rituals performed, Daksha Yagna was an important turning point in the creation and development of sects in Hinduism like Shaktism and Shaivism. It is the story behind the Stala Purana of Shakti Peethas, Daksha organised a huge yaga and intentionally avoided Shiva and Sati
