1.
Universe
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The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the size of the entire Universe is unknown. The earliest scientific models of the Universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers and were geocentric, over the centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus to develop the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. In developing the law of gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton built upon Copernicuss work as well as observations by Tycho Brahe. Further observational improvements led to the realization that our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy and it is assumed that galaxies are distributed uniformly and the same in all directions, meaning that the Universe has neither an edge nor a center. Discoveries in the early 20th century have suggested that the Universe had a beginning, the majority of mass in the Universe appears to exist in an unknown form called dark matter. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the Universe, under this theory, space and time emerged together 13. 799±0.021 billion years ago with a fixed amount of energy and matter that has become less dense as the Universe has expanded. After the initial expansion, the Universe cooled, allowing the first subatomic particles to form, giant clouds later merged through gravity to form galaxies, stars, and everything else seen today. Some physicists have suggested various multiverse hypotheses, in which the Universe might be one among many universes that likewise exist, the Universe can be defined as everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will exist. According to our current understanding, the Universe consists of spacetime, forms of energy, the Universe encompasses all of life, all of history, and some philosophers and scientists suggest that it even encompasses ideas such as mathematics and logic. The word universe derives from the Old French word univers, which in turn derives from the Latin word universum, the Latin word was used by Cicero and later Latin authors in many of the same senses as the modern English word is used. Another synonym was ὁ κόσμος ho kósmos, synonyms are also found in Latin authors and survive in modern languages, e. g. the German words Das All, Weltall, and Natur for Universe. The same synonyms are found in English, such as everything, the cosmos, the world, the prevailing model for the evolution of the Universe is the Big Bang theory. The Big Bang model states that the earliest state of the Universe was extremely hot and dense, the model is based on general relativity and on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity and isotropy of space. The Big Bang model accounts for such as the correlation of distance and redshift of galaxies, the ratio of the number of hydrogen to helium atoms. The initial hot, dense state is called the Planck epoch, after the Planck epoch and inflation came the quark, hadron, and lepton epochs. Together, these epochs encompassed less than 10 seconds of time following the Big Bang, the observed abundance of the elements can be explained by combining the overall expansion of space with nuclear and atomic physics. As the Universe expands, the density of electromagnetic radiation decreases more quickly than does that of matter because the energy of a photon decreases with its wavelength
2.
Deva (Hinduism)
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Deva means heavenly, divine, anything of excellence, and is also one of the terms for a deity in Hinduism. Deva is masculine, and the feminine equivalent is devi. In the earliest Vedic literature, all beings are called Asuras. The concepts and legends evolve in ancient Indian literature, and by the late Vedic period, in post-Vedic texts, such as the Puranas and the Itihasas of Hinduism, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad. In some medieval Indian literature, Devas are also referred to as Suras and contrasted with their powerful but malevolent half-brothers. Devas along with Asuras, Yakshas and Rakshasas are part of Indian mythology, Deva is a Sanskrit word found in Vedic literature of 2nd millennium BCE. Monier Williams translates it as heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of excellence, exalted. The concept also is used to refer to deity or god, the feminine form of *deiwos is *deiwih2, which descends into Indic languages as devi, in that context meaning female deity. The bode of the Devas is Dyuloka, according to Douglas Harper, the etymological roots of Deva mean a shining one, from *div- to shine, and it is a cognate with Greek dios divine and Zeus, and Latin deus god. Deva is masculine, and the feminine equivalent is devi. Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin dea and Greek thea, when capitalized, Devi or Mata refers to goddess as divine mother in Hinduism. Deva is also referred to as Devatā, while Devi as Devika, the word Deva is also a proper name or part of name in Indian culture, where it refers to one who wishes to excel, overcome or the seeker of, master of or a best among-. Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, and Prajapati are gods and hence Devas, saraswati and Ushas are some Devis or goddesses. Many of the deities taken together are worshiped as the Vishvedevas, max Muller states that the Vedic hymns are remarkable in calling every single of different devas as the only one, the supreme, the greatest.163.3, Trita art thou by interior operation. All powerful beings, good or evil, are called Asuras in the oldest layer of Vedic texts, a much studied hymn of the Rigveda states Devav asura, and contrasts it with Asura adevah. They are born from the father, Prajapati, the primordial progenitor, the elder sons are envisioned as the Asuras. The oldest Upanishads mention Devas, and their struggle with the Asuras, the Kaushitaki Upanishad, for example, in Book 4 states that Indra was weaker than the Asuras when he did not know his own Atman. Chandogya Upanishad, in chapter 1.2, describes the battle between Devas and Asuras on various sensory powers, finally, the Deva-Asura battle targets the soul, where Asuras fail and Devas succeed, because soul-force is serene and inherently good, asserts Chandogya Upanishad
3.
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
4.
Mantra
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A Mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have psychological and spiritual powers. A mantra may or may not have syntactic structure or literal meaning, the earliest mantras were composed in Vedic Sanskrit by Hindus in India, and are at least 3000 years old. Mantras now exist in various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, in Japanese Shingon tradition, the word Shingon means mantra. Similar hymns, chants, compositions and concepts are found in Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Christianity, the use, structure, function, importance, and types of mantras vary according to the school and philosophy of Hinduism and of Buddhism. Mantras serve a role in tantra. In this school, mantras are considered to be a sacred formula, in other schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism, initiation is not a requirement. Mantras come in forms, including ṛc and sāman. They are typically melodic, mathematically structured meters, believed to be resonant with numinous qualities, at its simplest, the word ॐ serves as a mantra. In more sophisticated forms, mantras are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations such as a longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge. Some mantras have no meaning, yet are musically uplifting. The Sanskrit word mantra- consists of the root man- to think, scholars consider mantras to be older than 1000 BC. By the middle Vedic period—1000 BC to 500 BC—claims Frits Staal, mantras in Hinduism had developed into a blend of art, the Chinese translation is zhenyan 眞言, 真言, literally true words, the Japanese onyomi reading of the Chinese being shingon. Mantras are neither unique to Hinduism, nor to other Indian religions such as Buddhism, similar creative constructs developed in Asian, mantras, suggests Frits Staal, may be older than language. There is no accepted definition of mantra. Renou has defined mantra as thought, mantras are structured formulae of thoughts, claims Silburn. Farquhar concludes that mantras are a religious thought, prayer, sacred utterance, zimmer defines mantra as a verbal instrument to produce something in one’s mind. There is no universally applicable uniform definition of mantra because mantras are used in different religions, in some schools of Hinduism for example, suggests Gonda, mantra is sakti to the devotee in the form of formulated and expressed thought. Staal clarifies that mantras are not rituals, they are what is recited or chanted during a ritual, There is a long history of scholarly disagreement on the meaning of mantras and whether they are really instruments of mind, as implied by the etymological origin of the word mantra
5.
Vahana
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Vahana denotes the being, typically an animal or mythical entity, a particular Hindu deity is said to use as a vehicle. In this capacity, the vahana is often called the deitys mount, upon the partnership between the deity and his vahana is woven much iconography and mythology. Deities are often depicted riding the vahana, other times, the vahana is depicted at the deitys side or symbolically represented as a divine attribute. The vahana may be considered an accoutrement of the deity, though the vahana may act independently, the deity may be seen sitting or on, or standing on, the vahana. They may be sitting on a platform called a howdah. Vah in Sanskrit means to carry or to transport, in Hindu iconography, positive aspects of the vehicle are often emblematic of the deity that it carries. Nandi the bull, vehicle of Shiva, represents strength and virility, Parvani the peacock, vehicle of Skanda, represents splendor and majesty. The hamsa, vehicle of Saraswati, represents wisdom, grace, however, the vehicle animal also symbolizes the evil forces over which the deity dominates. Mounted on Parvani, Skanda reins in the peacocks vanity, seated on Mushika, Ganesh crushes useless thoughts, which multiply like rats in the dark. Shani, protector of property, has a vulture, raven or crow in which he represses thieving tendencies, under Shanis influence, the vahana can make even malevolent events bring hope. The vehicle of a deity can vary according to the source, the time, in popular tradition, the origin of each vehicle is told in thousands of different ways. Three examples, While the god Ganesha was still a child, Ganesha trapped him with his lasso and made him his mount. Mushika was originally a gandharva, or celestial musician, after absent mindedly walking over the feet of a rishi named Vamadeva, Mushika was cursed and transformed into a mouse. However, after the rishi recovered his temper, he promised Mushika that one day, the prophecy was fulfilled when the mouse became the vahana of Ganesha. Before becoming the vehicle of Shiva, Nandi was a deity called Nandikeshvara, lord of joy and master of music, then, without warning, his name and his functions were transferred to the aspect of Shiva known as the deity Nataraja. From half-man, half-bull, he simply a bull. Since that time, he has watched over each of Shivas temples, kartikeya, the war-god known as Murugan in Southern India, is also mounted on a peacock. This peacock was originally a demon called Surapadma, while the rooster was called the angel, after provoking Murugan in combat, the demon repented at the moment his lance descended upon him
6.
Ganges in Hinduism
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In Hinduism, the river Ganga is considered sacred and is personified as a goddess Gaṅgā. It is worshipped by Hindus who believe bathing in the river causes the remission of sins. Pilgrims immerse the ashes of their kin in the Ganga, which is considered by them to bring the spirits closer to moksha, Moksha, however, is not an aim to strive for, as Hindus believe in the everlasting cycle of life and death. Several places sacred to Hindus lie along the banks of the Ganges, including Gangotri, Haridwar, Allahabad, during the Loy Krathong festival in Thailand, candlelit floats are released into waterways to honour Gautama Buddha and goddess Ganga for good fortune and washing away sins. Many religious people bathe in the Ganga as it is believed that it cleans the body as well as the mind from past and present lives, Bhagavata Purana depicts the birth of the narmad. According to Bhagavata Purana, Lord Vishnu in one of his incarnations, then in order to measure the universe, he extended his left foot to the end of the universe and pierced a hole in its covering with the nail of his big toe. Through the hole, the water of the Causal Ocean entered this universe as the Ganga River. Having washed the feet of the Lord, which are covered with reddish saffron. Then, the river Ganga was released from Lord Shiva s hair to meet the needs of the according to Hindu mythology. In other legends, Himavan fathered Parvati and Ganga, several years later, a king named Sagara magically acquired sixty thousand sons. One day, King Sagara performed a ritual of worship for the good of the kingdom, One of the integral parts of the ritual was a horse, which was stolen by the jealous Indra. Sagara sent all his sons all over the earth to search for the horse and they found it in the nether-world next to a meditating sage Kapil tied by Lord Indra. Believing that the sage had stolen the horse, they hurled insults at him, the sage opened his eyes for the first time in several years and looked at the sons of Sagara. With this glance, all sixty thousand were burnt to death, the souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not been performed. For the moksha of all the sons of Sagar, Anshuman started to pray Brahma to bring Ganga to the earth till the end of his life, then his son Dilip did the same but did not succeed. When Bhagiratha, one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learnt of this fate, he vowed to bring Ganga down to Earth so that her waters could cleanse their souls, Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga come down to Earth. Brahma agreed and he ordered Ganga to go down to the Earth, Ganga felt that this was insulting and decided to sweep the whole Earth away as she fell from the heavens. Alarmed, Bhagiratha prayed to Shiva that he break up Gangas descent, Ganga arrogantly fell on Shivas head
7.
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
8.
Triple deity
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A triple deity is three deities that are worshipped as one. Such deities are common throughout world mythology, the three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion, in religious iconography or mythological art, three separate beings may represent either a triad who always appear as a group or a single deity known from literary sources as having three aspects. In the case of the Irish Brigid it can be ambiguous whether she is a goddess or three sisters, all named Brigid. The Morrígan also appears sometimes as one being, and at times as three sisters, as do the three Irish goddesses of sovereignty, Ériu, Fódla and Banba. The Matres or Matronae are usually represented as a group of three but sometimes with as many as 27 inscriptions and they were associated with motherhood and fertility. Triads or triple beings are ubiquitous in the Welsh and Irish mythic imagery, the religious iconographic repertoire of Gaul and Britain during the Roman period includes a wide range of triple forms, the most common triadic depiction is that of the triple mother goddess. Peter H. Goodrich interprets the figure of Morgan le Fay as a manifestation of a British triple goddess in the medieval romance Sir Gawain. A modern idea of a Triple Goddess is central to the new movement of Wicca. Georges Dumézils trifunctional hypothesis proposed that ancient Indo-European society conceived itself as structured around three activities, worship, war, and toil, in later times, when slave labor became common, the three functions came to be seen as separate classes, represented each by its own god. Dumézil understood this mythology as reflecting and validating social structures in its content, such a class system is found in ancient Indian, Iranian, Greek. But according to the linguist M. L, at her sacred grove at Aricia, on the shores of Lake Nemi a triplefold Diana was venerated from the late sixth century BCE as Diana Nemorensis. Andreas Alföldi interpreted a late Republican numismatic image as the Latin Diana conceived as a unity of the divine huntress, the Moon goddess. This coin shows that the goddess cult image still stood in the lucus of Nemi in 43 BCE. The Lake of Nemi was Triviae lacus for Virgil, while Horace called Diana montium custos nemoremque virgo, Diana is commonly addressed as Trivia by Virgil and Catullus. Spells and hymns in Greek magical papyri refer to the goddess as triple-sounding, in the mythology of the Sámi, a triad of goddesses are responsible for childbirth and protecting children. Sáhráhkka, who lives in the fireplace, is responsible for pregnancy, juksáhkká, who lives in the area of the back doors, is responsible for turning some children into boys while they are in the womb. Uksáhkká guards the doors, and is responsible for protecting all young children
9.
Hinduism
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Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
10.
Ex nihilo
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Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning out of nothing. In theology, the common phrase creatio ex nihilo, contrasts with creatio ex materia, Creatio continua is the ongoing divine creation. The phrase ex nihilo also appears in the classical philosophical formulation ex nihilo nihil fit, when used outside of religious or metaphysical contexts ex nihilo also refers to something coming from nothing. For example, in a conversation, one might raise a topic ex nihilo if it bears no relation to the topic of discussion. An early conflation of Greek philosophy with the narratives in the Hebrew Bible came from Philo of Alexandria, Philo equated the Hebrew creator-deity Yahweh with Aristotles primum movens in an attempt to prove that the Jews had held monotheistic views even before the Greeks. Theologians debate whether the Bible itself teaches creation ex nihilo, traditional interpreters argue on grammatical and syntactical grounds that this is the meaning of Genesis 1,1, which is commonly rendered, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. However, other interpreters understand creation ex nihilo as a theological development. According to this view, church fathers opposed notions appearing in pre-Christian creation myths, Jewish thinkers took up the idea, which became important to Judaism, to ongoing strands in the Christian tradition, and—as a corollary—to Islam. The first sentence of the Greek version of Genesis in the Septuagint starts with the words, ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν, many ancient texts tend to have similar issues, and those on each side tend to interpret the text according to their understanding. Therefore, an uncaused, personal creator of the universe exists, who without the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, If it is possible for nothing to be, then it must be possible for everything to be. Some scholars have argued that Plethon viewed Plato as positing ex nihilo creation in his Timaeus, eric Voegelin detects in Hesiods chaos a creatio ex nihilo. The School of Chartres understood the creation account in Platos Timaeus to refer to creatio ex nihilo, in The Book of the Articles of Faith and Doctrines of Dogma written by Saadia Gaon the metaphysical problems of the creation of the world and the unity of the Creator are discussed. In this book, Saadia Gaon gives four proofs for the doctrine of the creation of the ex nihilo. To harmonize the biblical statement of the ex nihilo with the doctrine of the primordial elements, the Sefer Yetzirah assumes a double creation, one ideal. The cosmogony of Sefer Yetzirah is even omitted from the discussion of creation in his magnum opus Emunoth ve-Deoth. Several schools of thought stemming from the first cause argument, the following quotations come from Muhammad Asads translation, The Message of The Quran,52,35, Were they created by nothing. Or were they themselves the creators,2,117, The Originator is He of the heavens and the earth, and when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, Be—and it is. 19,67, But does man not bear in mind that We have created him aforetime while at one point they were nothing
11.
Conservation (ethic)
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Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the world, its fisheries, habitats. Secondary focus is on conservation, including non-renewable resources such as metals, minerals and fossil fuels, and energy conservation. Those who follow the conservation ethic and, especially, those who advocate or work toward conservation goals are termed conservationists, the terms conservation and preservation are frequently conflated outside of the academic, scientific, and professional literatures. Both terms involve a degree of protection, but how that is protection is carried out is the key difference, Conservation is generally associated with the protection of natural resources, while preservation is associated with the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes. Put simply, conservation seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks protection of nature from use, during the environmental movement of the early 20th century, two opposing factions emerged, conservationists and preservationists. More Utilitarian schools of conservation seek a proper valuation of local and global impacts of human activity upon nature in their effect upon human well being, now and to posterity. How such values are assessed and exchanged among people determines the social, political and this is a view common in the modern environmental movement. These movements have diverged but they have deep and common roots in the conservation movement, in the United States of America, the year 1864 saw the publication of two books which laid the foundation for Romantic and Utilitarian conservation traditions in America. The posthumous publication of Henry David Thoreaus Walden established the grandeur of unspoiled nature as a citadel to nourish the spirit of man, in common usage, the term refers to the activity of systematically protecting natural resources such as forests, including biological diversity. Carl F. Jordan defines the term as, biological conservation as being a philosophy of managing the environment in a manner that does not despoil, exhaust or extinguish. While this usage is not new, the idea of conservation has been applied to the principles of ecology, biogeography, anthropology, economy. The term conservation itself may cover the concepts such as diversity, genetic diversity. These are often summarized as the priority to respect diversity, especially by Greens, much recent movement in conservation can be considered a resistance to commercialism and globalization. Slow food is a consequence of rejecting these as moral priorities, distinct trends exist regarding conservation development. Thus countries like Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, etc, — a long time before there were national parks and national nature reserves. Protected areas in developing countries, where probably as many as 70–80 percent of the species of the live, still enjoy very little effective management. The Adopt A Ranger Foundation has calculated that worldwide about 140,000 rangers are needed for the areas in developing
12.
End time
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The end time is a future time-period described variously in the eschatologies of several world religions, which believe that world events will achieve a final climax. The Abrahamic faiths maintain a linear cosmology, with end-time scenarios containing themes of transformation and redemption, however, other Christians believe that the end time represents the personal tribulation experienced before they become enlightened with the Word of God. In Islam, the Day of Judgement is preceded by the appearance of the Mahdi mounted on a white stallion, with the help of Isa, the Mahdi will triumph over Masih ad-Dajjal. Non-Abrahamic faiths tend to have more cyclical world-views, with end-time eschatologies characterized by decay, redemption, in Hinduism, the end time occurs when Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu, descends atop a white horse and brings an end to the current Kali Yuga. In Buddhism, the Buddha predicted that his teachings would be forgotten after 5,000 years, a bodhisattva named Maitreya will appear and rediscover the teaching of dharma. The ultimate destruction of the world will come through seven suns. Theories have included the Big Rip, Big Crunch, Big Bounce, zoroastrian eschatology is the oldest in recorded history, with beliefs paralleling and predating the framework of the major Abrahamic faiths. By the year 500 BC, a fully developed concept of the end of the world was established in Zoroastrianism, and men become more deceitful and more given to vile practices. Honorable wealth will proceed to those of perverted faith, and a dark cloud makes the whole sky night, and it will rain more noxious creatures than water. A Manichaean battle between the righteous and wicked will be followed by the Frashokereti, on earth, the Saoshyant will arrive as the final savior of mankind, and bring about the resurrection of the dead. Ashavan will pass through the river as if it were warm milk. It will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu, the righteous will partake of the parahaoma, which will confer immortality upon them. Humanity will become like the Amesha Spentas, living without food, hunger, thirst, bodies will become so light as to cast no shadow. All humanity will speak a language, and belong to a single nation with no borders. All will share a single purpose and goal, joining with Ahura Mazda for a perpetual, in Judaism, the main textual source for the belief in the end of days and accompanying events is the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. The Five Books of Moses describe a time when the Jewish people will not be able to keep the Laws of Moses in the Land of Israel, major sources for this scenario include the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Other books of the Hebrew Prophets also elaborate about the end of days, in rabbinic literature, rabbis elaborated and explained the prophecies that were found in the Hebrew Bible, along with oral law and rabbinic traditions about its significance. The main tenets of Jewish eschatology, in no order, include
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Anthropomorphism
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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters, people have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals. Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos and it is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God. One of the oldest known is a sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent, in either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality, they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain phenomena, creation. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons and they feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is referred to as anthropotheism, from the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on an interpretation of Genesis 1,27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and blackThracians that they are pale and he said that the greatest god resembles man neither in form nor in mind. Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension, judaisms rejection of an anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period, when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaisms rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems
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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
15.
Vishnu
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Vishnu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and the Supreme Being in its Vaishnavism tradition. Along with Brahma and Shiva, Vishnu forms a Hindu trinity, however and his avatars most notably include Krishna in the Mahabharata and Rama in the Ramayana. He is also known as Narayana, Jagannath, Vasudeva, Vithoba and he is one of the five equivalent deities worshipped in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta Tradition of Hinduism. In Hindu inconography, Vishnu is usually depicted as having a dark, or pale blue complexion and having four arms. He holds a padma in his left hand, Kaumodaki gada in his lower right hand, Panchajanya shankha in his upper left hand. A traditional depiction is Lord Vishnu reclining on the coils of Ananta, accompanied by his consort devi Lakshmi, yaska, the mid 1st-millennium BCE Vedanga scholar, in his Nirukta, defines Vishnu as viṣṇur viṣvater vā vyaśnoter vā, one who enters everywhere. He also writes, atha yad viṣito bhavati tad viṣnurbhavati, that which is free from fetters, the medieval Indian scholar Medhātithi suggested that the word Vishnu has etymological roots in viś, meaning to pervade, thereby connoting that Vishnu is one who is everything and inside everything. Vishnu is a Vedic deity, but not a prominent one when compared to Indra, Agni, just 5 out of 1028 hymns of the Rigveda, a 2nd millennium BCE Hindu text, are dedicated to Vishnu, and he finds minor mention in the other hymns. Though a minor mention and with overlapping attributes in the Vedas, he has important characteristics in various hymns of Rig Veda and he is also described in the Vedic literature as the one who supports heaven and earth. In the Vedic hymns, Vishnu is invoked alongside other deities, especially Indra and his distinguishing characteristic in Vedas is his association with light. Two Rigvedic hymns in Mandala 7 refer to Vishnu, in section 7.99 of the Rgveda, Vishnu is addressed as the god who separates heaven and earth, a characteristic he shares with Indra. In the Vedic texts, the deity or god referred to as Vishnu is Surya or Savitr, in hymn 7.99 of Rigveda, Indra-Vishnu are equivalent and produce the sun, with the verses asserting that this sun is the source of all energy and light for all. In other hymns of the Rigveda, Vishnu is a friend of Indra. In the Yajurveda, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Narayana sukta, Narayana is mentioned as the supreme being, the first verse of Narayana Suktam mentions the words paramam padam, which literally mean highest post and may be understood as the supreme abode for all souls. This is also known as Param Dhama, Paramapadam or Vaikuntha, Rig Veda 1.22.20 a also mentions the same paramam padam. In the Atharvaveda, the mythology of a boar who raises goddess earth from the depths of cosmic ocean appears, in post-Vedic mythology, this legend becomes one of the basis of many cosmogonic myth called the Varaha legend, with Varaha as an avatar of Vishnu. Several hymns of the Rigveda repeat the mighty deed of Vishnu called the Trivikrama and it is an inspiration for ancient artwork in numerous Hindu temples such as at the Ellora Caves, which depict the Trivikrama legend through the Vamana avatar of Vishnu. Trivikrama refers to the three steps or three strides of Vishnu
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Avatar
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An avatar is a concept in Hinduism and it means descent, and refers to the appearance or incarnation of a deity on earth. The term also refers to alight, to make ones appearance. The word avatar does not appear in the Vedic literature, but appears in verb forms in post-Vedic literature, the Rigveda describes Indra as endowed with a mysterious power of assuming any form at will. The Bhagavad Gita expounds the doctrine of Avatara but with other than avatar. Theologically, the term is most often associated with the Hindu god Vishnu, the avatars of Vishnu are important in Vaishnavism theology. In the goddess-based Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, avatars of the Devi in different appearances such as Tripura Sundari, Durga, while avatars of other deities such as Ganesha and Shiva are also mentioned in medieval Hindu texts, this is minor and occasional. The incarnation doctrine is one of the important differences between Vaishnavism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism, Incarnation concepts similar to avatar are also found in Buddhism, Christianity and others. The Sanskrit noun is derived from the Sanskrit roots ava and tṛī and these roots trace back, states Monier-Williams, to -taritum, -tarati, -rītum. Avatar literally means descent, alight, to ones appearance. The word also implies to overcome, to remove, to bring down, an avatar, states Justin Edwards Abbott, is a saguna embodiment of the nirguna Brahman or Atman. Neither the Vedas nor the Principal Upanishads ever mention the word avatar as a noun, the verb roots and form, such as avatarana, do appear in ancient post-Vedic Hindu texts, but as action of descending, but not as an incarnated person. The related verb avatarana is, states Paul Hacker, used with double meaning, one as action of the divine descending, the term is most commonly found in the context of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is in medieval era texts, those composed after the sixth century CE, that the version of avatar appears. The idea proliferates thereafter, in the Puranic stories for many deities, the term avatar, in colloquial use, is also an epithet or a word of reverence for any extraordinary human being who is revered for his or her ideas. In some contexts, the term avatara just means a place, site of sacred pilgrimage, or just achieve ones goals after effort. The term avatar is not unique to Hinduism and it is found in the Trikaya doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, in descriptions for the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism, and many ancient cultures. The manifest embodiment is sometimes referred to as an incarnation, the translation of avatar as incarnation has been questioned by Christian theologists, who state that an incarnation is in flesh and imperfect, while avatar is mythical and perfect. The theological concept of Christ as an incarnation, as found in Christology, according to Oduyoye and Vroom, this is different from the Hindu concept of avatar because avatars in Hinduism are unreal and is similar to Docetism
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Dattatreya
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Dattatreya or Dattā is a paradigmatic Sannyasi and one of the lords of Yoga in Hinduism. In many regions of India and Nepal, he is considered a deity, in Maharashtra, he is a syncretistic deity, considered to be an avatar of the three Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, collectively known as Trimurti. In other regions, and some versions of such as the Garuda Purana, Brahma Purana and Sattvata Samhita. He is typically dressed as a monk or almost naked, situated in a forest or wilderness suggestive of his renunciation of worldly goods. In paintings and some carvings, he is surrounded by four dogs and a cow. In the temples of southern Maharashtra, Varanasi and in the Himalayas, his iconography shows him with one head and two hands with four dogs and a cow. According to Rigopoulos, in the Nath tradition of Shaivism, Dattatreya is revered as the Adi-Guru of the Adinath Sampradaya of the Nathas, the first Lord of Yoga with mastery of Tantra. According to Mallinson, Dattatreya is not the traditional guru of the Nath sampradaya, he was coopted by the Nath tradition in about the 18th century as a guru, several Upanishads are dedicated to him, as are texts of the Advaita Vedanta-Yoga tradition in Hinduism. One of the most important texts of Advaita Vedanta, namely Avadhuta Gita is attributed to Dattatreya, in Maharashtra, an annual festival in the Hindu calendar month of Mārgaśīrṣa reveres Dattatreya and this is called Datta Jayanti. The mythologies of Dattatreya are diverse and vary by region, in the Puranas, he was born in north Indian hermitage to Anusuya and her husband the Vedic sage Atri traditionally credited with making the largest contribution to the Rigveda. Another states his father lived in southern India, in the western Deccan region, a third claims he was born in Kashmir jungles near the sacred Amarnath. In a fifth myth, sage Atri was very old when young Anusuya married him, the trinity were pleased with them for having brought light and knowledge to the world, simultaneously granted the boon, which led Dattatreya to be born with characteristics of all three. While his origins are unclear and trace to inconsistent mythologies, stories about his life are more consistent and he is described in the Mahabharata as an exceptional Rishi with extraordinary insights and knowledge, who is adored and raised to a Guru and an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranas. Dattatreya is stated in these texts to having renounced the world, one myth claims he meditated immersed in water for a long time, another has him wandering from childhood and the young Dattatreya footprints have been preserved on a lonely peak at Girnar. The Tripura-rahasya refers to the disciple Parasurama finding Dattatreya meditating on Gandhamadana mountain and this legend has been emblematic in the Hindu belief, particularly among artists and Yogis, that ideas, teachings and practices come from all sources, that self effort is a means to learning. The 24 teachers of Dattatreya are, The appearance of Shri Dattatreya in pictures varies according to traditional beliefs, many older medieval temples of Dattatreya show him with just one head, such as the one in Mahur and another in Pandharpur, both in southern Maharashtra. Texts such as Agni Purana describe the features for building murti. In Varanasi, Nepal, north Himalayan foothill states of India, in western parts of Maharashtra, the syncretic six armed and three faced iconography is more common
18.
Halebidu (town)
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Halebidu is located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu was the capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. It is home to some of the best examples of Hoysala architecture, most notable are the ornate Hoysaleshwara and Kedareshwara temples. The city got the name Halebidu because it was ransacked two times during the invasion of Malik Kafur, Halebidu was the 12th-13th century capital of the Hoysala empire. The Hoysaleshwara temple was built during this time by Ketamala and attributed to King Vishnuvardhana and it is believed to have been completed around 1160 AD by Kedaroja, the chief architect of Vishnuvardhanas son and successor Narasimha I. It enshrines Hoysaleshwara and Shantaleshwara, named after King Vishnuvardhana Hoysala, the town was sacked by the armies of Malik Kafur in the early 14th century, after which it fell into a state of disrepair and neglect. The temple complex comprises two Hindu temples, the Hoysaleshwara and Kedareshwara temples and two Jain basadi, in front of these temples there is a large lake. The two Nandi images on the sides of the Hoysaleshwara temple are monoliths, soapstone was used for the construction of these temples. There is a museum in the temple complex. The Hoysaleshwara temple, dating back to the 1121 C. E. is astounding for its wealth of sculptural details, the walls of the temple are covered with an endless variety of depictions from Hindu mythology, animals, birds and shilabalikas or dancing figures. No two sculptures of the temple are the same and this temple, guarded by a Nandi bull, was never completed, despite 86 years of labour. The Jain basadi nearby are equally rich in sculptural detail, the Parshvanatha Basadi was built by Boppadeva in 1133AD during the reign of Vishnuvardhana by Boppana, the son of the famous Gangaraja who was a minister under Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana. There is an 18 ft tall Parshvanatha tirthankara statue inside the Basadi made of granite stone. Sculpture of Yaksha Dharanendra and Yakshi Padmavati present in mahamantapa, the Shantinatha Basadi was built around 1192 A. D. during the reign of Ballala II. There is an 18 ft. tall statue of Shantinatha and this temple is now being proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Adinatha Basadi is a small Jain basadi built in 12th century, the temple houses an idol of Adinatha and Hindu goddess Saraswati. Halebidu is 16 km away from the one more historical place Belur and it is well connected by road and rail to Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mangaluru. There are regular buses to Hassan, the distance is 149 km to Mysore and 31 km to Hassan
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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
20.
Vedic period
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The Vedic period was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, scholars consider Vedic civilisation to have been a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures. The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called Hindu synthesis. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE, after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which ended c.1900 BCE, groups of Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into north-western India and started to inhabit the northern Indus Valley. The knowledge about the Aryans comes mostly from the Rigveda-samhita, which was composed between c and they brought with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was a mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra, Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug probably borrowed from the BMAC religion and his rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers. These migrations may have been accompanied with violent clashes with the people who inhabited this region. The Rig Veda contains accounts of conflicts between the Aryas and the Dasas and Dasyus, the Rig Veda describes Dasas and Dasyus as people who do not perform sacrifices or obey the commandments of gods. Their speech is described as mridhra which could variously mean soft, uncouth, hostile, other adjectives which describe their physical appearance are subject to many interpretations. Internecine military conflicts between the tribes of Vedic Aryans are also described in the Rig Veda. Most notable of such conflicts was the Battle of Ten Kings, which took place on the banks of the river Parushni. The battle was fought between the tribe Bharatas, led by their chief Sudas, against a confederation of ten tribes— Puru, Yadu, Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu, Alina, Bhalanas, Paktha, Siva, Vishanin. Bharatas lived around the regions of the river Saraswati, while Purus, their western neighbours. The other tribes dwelt north-west of the Bharatas in the region of Punjab, division of the waters of Ravi could have been a reason for the war
21.
Vedic Brahmanism
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Brahmanism is the religion that developed out of the historical Vedic religion in ancient India. The term is different from Brahminism, the latter is used to identify a ritualistic system led by the Brahmin priests in the Hindu society. The term Brahmanism is considered synonymous with Hinduism, by some scholars, of the major traditions that emerged from Brahmanism are the six darshanas, particular the Vedanta, Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism. There were other schools of thought in ancient India, those that disagreed with Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism, indian religions History of India History of Hinduism
22.
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
23.
Vaishnavism
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Vaishnavism is one of the major traditions within Hinduism along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism, its followers are called Vaishnavas, the tradition is notable for its avatar doctrine, wherein Vishnu is revered in one of many distinct incarnations. Of these, ten avatars of Vishnu are the most studied, Krishna, Rama, Narayana, Vāsudeva, Hari, Vithoba, Kesava, Madhava, Govinda and Jagannath are among the popular names used for the same supreme. The tradition has traceable roots to the 1st millennium BCE, as Bhagavatism, later developments led by Ramananda created a Rama-oriented movement, now the largest monastic group in Asia. The Vaishnava tradition has many sampradayas ranging from the medieval era Dvaita school of Madhvacharya to Vishishtadvaita school of Ramanuja, new Vaishnavism movements have been founded in the modern era such as the ISKCON of Prabhupada. The tradition is known for the devotion to an avatar of Vishnu. Key texts in Vaishnavism include the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Pancaratra texts, Krishnaism becomes associated with bhakti yoga in the medieval period. Although Vishnu was a Vedic solar deity, he is mentioned less often compared to Agni, Indra and other Vedic deities, other scholars state that there are other Vedic deities, such as water deity Nara, who together form the historical roots of Vaishnavism. The ancient emergence of Vaishnavism is unclear, the evidence inconsistent, according to Dalal, the origins may be in Vedic deity Bhaga, who gave rise to Bhagavatism. According to Preciado-Solís, the Vedic deities Nara and Narayana form one of the Vedic roots of Vaishnavism, according to Dandekar, Vaishnavism may have emerged from merger of several ancient theistic traditions, where the various deities were integrated as different avatars of the same god. In Dandekar theory, Vaishnavism emerged at the end of the Vedic period, closely before the urbanisation of northern India. This earliest phase was established the time of Pāṇini who, in his Astadhyayi and this was followed by a merger with the cult of Gopala-Krsna of the cowherd community of the Abhıras at the 4th century CE. The character of Gopala Krishna is often considered to be non-Vedic, according to Dandekar, such mergers consolidated the position of Krishnaism between the heterodox sramana movement and the orthodox Vedic religion. The Greater Krsnaism, states Dandekar, then merged with the Rigvedic Vishnu, syncretism of various traditions and Vedism resulted in Vaishnavism. At this stage that Vishnu of the Rig Veda was assimilated into non-Vedic Krishnaism, the appearance of Krishna as one of the Avatars of Vishnu dates to the period of the Sanskrit epics in the early centuries CE. The Bhagavad Gita was incorporated into the Mahabharata as a key text for Krishnaism, finally, the Narayana-cult was also included, which further brahmanized Vaishnavism. The Nara-Narayana cult may have originated in Badari, a ridge of the Hindu Kush. Purusa Narayana may have later turned into Arjuna and Krsna
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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
25.
R. C. Majumdar
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Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was a respected historian and professor of Indian history. Born at Khandarpara, in Faridpur District on 4 December 1888, to Haladhar Majumdar and Bidhumukhi, in 1905, he passed his Entrance Examination from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. In 1907, he passed F. A. with first class scholarship from Ripon College and joined Presidency College, Calcutta. Graduating in B. A. in 1909 and MA from Calcutta University in 1911 and he started his teaching career as a Lecturer at Dacca Government Training College. Since 1914, he spent seven years as a professor of history at the University of Calcutta and he got his doctorate for his thesis Corporate Life in Ancient India. In 1921 he joined the newly established University of Dacca as Professor of History and he also served, until he became its Vice Chancellor, as the Head of the Department of History as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Between 1924 and 1936 he was Provost of Jagannath Hall, then he became the Vice Chancellor of that University, for five years from 1937 to 1942. From 1950, he was Principal of the College of Indology and he was elected the General President of the Indian History Congress and also became the Vice President of the International Commission set up by the UNESCO for the history of mankind. He started his research on ancient India, after extensive travels to Southeast Asia and research, he wrote detailed histories of Champa, Suvarnadvipa and Kambuja Desa. On the initiative of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he took up the mantle of editing a multi-volume tome on Indian History. Starting in 1951, he toiled for twenty six years to describe the history of the Indian people from the Vedic Period to the present day in eleven volumes. In 1955 Majumdar became the founder-principal of the College of Indology of Nagpur University, in 1958-59 he taught Indian history in the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania. He was also the president of the Asiatic Society and the vangiya sahitya parisad, for some time he was also the Sheriff of Calcutta. When the final volume of The History and Culture of the Indian People was published in 1977 and he also edited the three-volume history of Bengal published by Dacca University. His last book was Jivaner Smritidvipe, when the Government of India set up an editorial Committee to author a history of the freedom struggle of India, he was its principal member. But, following a conflict with the then Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on the Sepoy Mutiny, he left the government job, the Sepoy Mutiny & Revolt of 1857. According to him the origins of Indias freedom struggle lie in the English-educated Indian middle-class and his views on the freedom struggle are found in his book History of the Freedom Movement in India. He was an admirer of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the Early History of Bengal, Dacca,1924
26.
Brahman
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In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest Universal Principle, the Ultimate Reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient and it is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a concept is the single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists in the universe. Brahman is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and it is conceptualized in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, Brahman is a key concept found in the Vedas, and it is extensively discussed in the early Upanishads. The Vedas conceptualize Brahman as the Cosmic Principle, in the Upanishads, it has been variously described as Sat-cit-ānanda and as the unchanging, permanent, highest reality. Brahman is discussed in Hindu texts with the concept of Atman, personal, impersonal or Para Brahman, or in various combinations of these qualities depending on the philosophical school. In dualistic schools of Hinduism such as the theistic Dvaita Vedanta, Brahman is different from Atman in each being, Brahman is thus a gender-neutral concept that implies greater impersonality than masculine or feminine conceptions of the deity. Brahman is referred to as the supreme self, puligandla states it as the unchanging reality amidst and beyond the world, while Sinar states Brahman is a concept that cannot be exactly defined. In Vedic Sanskrit, Brahma, brahman from root bṛh-, means to be or make firm, strong, solid, expand, promote. Brahmana, from stems brha + Sanskrit -man- from Indo-European root -men- which denotes some manifested form of power, inherent firmness. In later Sanskrit usage, Brahma, brahman means the concept of the transcendent and immanent ultimate reality, the concept is central to Hindu philosophy, especially Vedanta, this is discussed below. Brahm is another variant of Brahman, Brahmā, Brahman, means the deity or deva Prajāpati Brahmā. He is one of the members of the Hindu trinity and associated with creation, but does not have a cult in present-day India. This is because Brahmā, the creator-god, is long-lived but not eternal i. e. Brahmā gets absorbed back into Purusha at the end of an aeon, and is born again at the beginning of a new kalpa. These are distinct from, A brāhmaṇa, is a commentary on the Vedic mantras—an integral part of the Vedic literature. A brāhmaṇa, means priest, in this usage the word is rendered in English as Brahmin. This usage is found in the Atharva Veda. Ishvara, in Advaita, is identified as a partial manifestation of the ultimate reality
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Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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Arthur Llewellyn Basham was a noted historian and indologist and author of a number of books. As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s, Arthur Llewellyn Basham was born on 24 May 1914, in Loughton, Essex, the son of Abraham Arthur Edward Basham and Maria Jane Basham née Thompson. Although an only child, he grew up in Essex with his adopted sister and his mother was also a journalist and short story writer further instilling a love of language and literature. As a child, he was introduced to music and learnt to play the piano to a high standard. As an undergrad at ANU in the 1970s I well remember attending his Asian Civilizations lectures in the HC Coombs lecture theatre, one morning in 1974 we noticed that an upright piano had been left from a performance the previous evening. Upon arrival for his lecture, Prof Basham calmly strolled over to the piano, sat down, a standing ovation from his students followed. I can still see him striding across the campus, pipe-in-mouth, Basham developed a keen interest in religion which began with the Christianity he was brought up with and then extended into Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. He went on to take a BA in Sanskrit from the School of Oriental and African Studies, after the war he returned to SOAS and began researching for a Ph. D under Professor L. D. For his research into the History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas he received a scholarship and he became a lecturer in 1948, attained the Ph. D in 1950, became a Reader in 1954, and in 1958 was promoted to Professorship. When the Head of the Department of History, Professor C. H, after retiring from ANU in 1979, Basham accepted a series of one year visiting professorships with various universities. Basham was one of the first western historians to critically gauge the impact of Swami Vivekananda from a global perspective, Basham was appointed Swami Vivekananda Professor in Oriental Studies at the Asiatic Society of Calcutta in September 1985. He died in Calcutta in India in 1986, an annual public lecture series is given at the ANU in his memory. Possibly his most popular book is The Wonder That was India - published seven years after the 1947 Independence of India, revised editions of the book were released in 1963 and then 1967. Rupa & Co, New Delhi brought out an edition in 1981. London, brought out an edition in 1985. By 2001, the version was in its 37th edition. Amazon. com staff review/book description reads most widely used introduction to Indian civilization, although first published in 1954, it has remained a classic interpretation. In book he mention that man can escape from Law of Gravity as well as passage of Time but not from his deeds. Basham also wrote History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas, based on his PhD work done under L. D. Barnett, several of his key papers on Hinduism were edited as the book The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism by Kenneth G. Zysk
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Maitrayaniya Upanishad
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The Maitrayaniya Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text that is embedded inside the Yajurveda. It is also known as the Maitri Upanishad, and is listed as number 24 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is associated with the Maitrayanas school of the Yajurveda. The chronology of Maitrayaniya Upanishad is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad consists of seven Prapathakas. The content and structure of the Upanishad is also different in various manuscript recensions, the etymological root of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad are unclear. This has historically led to a variety of names and spellings for this Upanishad, Maitra and Maitri are related words which literally mean kindly, benevolent, good will, amity, friend of all creatures. The likely root for the Upanishad is probably the name of an ancient Indian scholar, Maitra, sometimes spelled Maitri or Maitreya, the ancient scholar is also credited with a school of thought, thus giving the text the name Maitrayaniya Upanishad. Olivelle includes Maitri Upanishad among the list of principal Upanishads that were composed last, mahony suggests an earlier date, placing Prashna along with Maitri and Mandukya Upanishads, as texts that probably emerged about early fourth century BCE. Jayatilleke states, Buddhism is not far removed in time from, though it is prior to, nakamura states that although Buddhistic influence can be seen in the Maitri Upanishad, the particular terms and modes of expression of Mahayana Buddhism do not yet appear. Phillips, in contrast, lists Maitri Upanishad before and about the time the first Buddhist Pali canonical texts were composed, ranade posits a view similar to Phillips, placing Maitris chronological composition in the fifth group of ancient Upanishads and last of the Principal Upanishads. The extant recension of the text consists seven Prapāṭhakas, of several sections are Khilas added later. The last two are called as khila by medieval era Indian scholar Ramatirtha, others consider the last three sections as supplements and appendices. Other discovered manuscript versions of the Maitri Upanishad present different number of sections, ranging from 1 to 4, there are also differences in style, structure and content among the discovered manuscripts when the text contains the same number of sections. The text is a prose style Upanishad, with a collection of different sized paragraphs. The first section has four paragraphs, the second has seven, as appendices, the fifth lesson has two paragraphs, while the sixth Prapathaka is the longest section with thirty eight paragraphs. The last supplementary section, or the seventh Prapāṭhaka has eleven paragraphs some with many sub-paragraphs, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is embedded after the Brahmana text of Yajur Veda, and in its opening passages refers to rituals contained therein. It contextually belongs to the Sannyasa Upanishads corpus, hume includes it among his list of Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Maitri Upanishad deals with the concept and nature of Atman, the question of how is joy possible, and how one can achieve moksha. in later sections it offers a debate on possible answers. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires, meditate on the Self, to become complete, but who is to be meditated on
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Baroli Temples
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The Baroli Temples Complex, also known as the Badoli temples, is located in Baroli village in Rawatbhata town in Chittorgarh district in Rajasthan, India. The complex of eight temples is situated within a walled enclosure and they are built in the Pratihara style of temple architecture dated to the tenth century A. D. All nine temples are under the control of the Archaeological Survey of India for conservation and protection. A well known art critic characterised the creations of Badoli as the most perfect of their age that he had encountered within that part of the country and, the Baroli Temples Complex is located in Baroli village in Rawatbhata town in Chittorgarh district in Rajasthan, India. The complex is located close to the bank of the Chambal River,45 kilometres south east of Kota. Set around a fountain, they are positioned in two zones in the midst of a forest containing peepal, kadamba, mango, and jamun trees. Though the history of the Baroli Temples is not very clear and they are one of the earliest temple complexes in Rajasthan. A carved stone image of the god Nataraja was stolen from the Baroli temple complex in 1998 and it has been traced to a private collector in London. However, the statue has not been recovered so far, the 10th-century Baroli Temples are of great architectural interest, consisting of temple structures built in the Gurjara-Pratihara architectural style, with exquisitely carved stonework. They are in differing stages of upkeep, with some in a semi-ruined state, there are 8 major temples in Baroli and a ninth about one kilometre away. Four temples are dedicated to Shiva, two to Durga and one each to Shiva-Trimurti, Vishnu and Ganesha, the Nataraja images carved in these temples are similar to those seen at Upramala. The sculpture has 16 arms and its headdress is matted, there is a large diadem carved at the centre top of the skull, which is garnished with beaded swags. The facial features are fine, with high arched brows. The Ghateshwara Mahadeva temple is the most prominent and the largest in the complex, the main temple structure comprises the sanctum and the mukhamandapa, a front mandapa or hall. Dated to the early 10th century, it is a structure which has the god Shiva depicted in the form of five lingas. One linga appears like an inverted ghata or pot, and hence the given to the temple of Ghateshwara. The sanctum has a ceiling in the form of a blossoming lotus. The temple has a finely carved shikara above the sanctum, the superstructure has been described as a latina and the pinnacle is a phamsana
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Elephanta Caves
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Elephanta Caves are a network of sculpted caves located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri in Mumbai Harbour,10 kilometres to the east of the city of Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The island, located on an arm of the Arabian Sea, consists of two groups of caves—the first is a group of five Hindu caves, the second. The Hindu caves contain rock cut sculptures, representing the Shaiva Hindu sect. The rock cut architecture of the caves has been dated to between the 5th and 8th centuries, although the identity of the builders is still a subject of debate. The caves are hewn from basalt rock. All the caves were originally painted in the past. The main cave was a Hindu place of worship until Portuguese rule began in 1534 and this cave was renovated in the 1970s after years of neglect, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 to preserve the artwork. It is currently maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, is about 11 km east of the Apollo Bunder on the Mumbai Harbour and 10 km south of Pir Pal in Trombay. The island covers about 10 km2 at high tide and about 16 km2 at low tide, Gharapuri is small village on the south side of the island. The Elephanta Caves can be reached by a ferry from the Gateway of India, Mumbai, the cave is closed on Monday. The island is 2.4 km in length with two hills that rise to a height of about 150 m, a deep ravine cuts through the heart of the island from north to south. On the west, the hill rises gently from the sea and stretches east across the ravine and this hill is known as the Stupa hill. Forest growth with clusters of mango, tamarind, and karanj trees cover the hills with scattered palm trees, rice fields are seen in the valley. The fore shore is made up of sand and mud with mangrove bushes on the fringe, landing quays sit near three small hamlets known as Set Bunder in the north-west, Mora Bunder in the northeast, and Gharapuri or Raj Bunder in the south. One of the caves on the hill is unfinished. It is an island with a buffer zone according to a Notification issued in 1985. Since no inscriptions on any of the island have been discovered, pandavas, the heroes of the Indian epic Mahabharata, and Banasura, the demon devotee of Shiva, are both credited with building temples or cut caves to live. Local tradition holds that the caves are not man-made, the Elephanta caves are of unknown date and attribution
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Prambanan
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The temple compound is located approximately 17 kilometres northeast of the city of Yogyakarta on the boundary between Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces. The temple compound, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia and it is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu architecture, and by the towering 47-metre-high central building inside a large complex of individual temples. Prambanan attracts many visitors from around the world, the Prambanan temple is the largest Hindu temple of ancient Java, and the first building was completed in the mid-9th century. It was likely started by Rakai Pikatan as the Hindu Sanjaya Dynastys answer to the Buddhist Sailendra Dynastys Borobudur, the construction of this massive Hindu temple signifies that the Medang court had shifted its patronage from Mahayana Buddhism to Shaivite Hinduism. A temple was first built at the site around 850 CE by Rakai Pikatan and expanded extensively by King Lokapala, according to the Shivagrha inscription of 856 CE, the temple was built to honor Lord Shiva, and its original name was Shiva-grha or Shiva-laya. According to the Shivagrha inscription, a water project to change the course of a river near Shivagrha Temple was undertaken during the construction of the temple. The river, identified as the Opak River, now runs north to south on the side of the Prambanan temple compound. Historians suggest that originally the river was curved further to east and was deemed too near to the main temple, the project was done by cutting the river along a north to south axis along the outer wall of the Shivagrha Temple compound. The former river course was filled in and made level to create a space for the temple expansion. Some archaeologists propose that the statue of Shiva in the garbhagriha of the temple was modelled after King Balitung, serving as a depiction of his deified self after death. The temple compound was expanded by successive Mataram kings, such as Daksa and Tulodong, Prambanan served as the royal temple of the Kingdom of Mataram, with most of the states religious ceremonies and sacrifices being conducted there. At the height of the kingdom, scholars estimate that hundreds of brahmins with their disciples lived within the wall of the temple compound. The urban center and the court of Mataram were located nearby, in the 930s, the court was shifted to East Java by Mpu Sindok, who established the Isyana Dynasty. An eruption of Mount Merapi volcano, located north of Prambanan in central Java and that marked the beginning of the decline of the temple. It was soon abandoned and began to deteriorate, the temples collapsed during a major earthquake in the 16th century. Although the temple ceased to be an important center of worship, the statues and the ruins become the theme and the inspiration for the Loro Jonggrang folktale. As a result, the locals developed tales and legends to explain the origin of temples, infused with myths of giants, and a cursed princess. They gave Prambanan and Sewu a wondorous origin, these were said in the Loro Jonggrang legend to have created by a multitude of demons under the order of Bandung Bondowoso
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Western Chalukya architecture
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Western Chalukyan political influence was at its peak in the Deccan Plateau during this period. The centre of cultural and temple-building activity lay in the Tungabhadra region and these monuments, regional variants of pre-existing dravida temples, defined the Karnata dravida tradition. Temples of all built by the Chalukyan architects during this era remain today as examples of the architectural style. The surviving Western Chalukya monuments are built in the Shaiva, Vaishnava. None of the military, civil, or courtly architecture has survived, being built of mud, brick and wood, the centre of these architectural developments was the region encompassing the present-day Dharwad district, it included areas of present-day Haveri and Gadag districts. In these districts, about fifty monuments have survived as evidence of the temple building of the Western Chalukyan workshops. The influence of this style extended beyond the Kalyani region in the northeast to the Bellary region in the east, in the Bijapur–Belgaum region to the north, the style was mixed with that of the Hemadpanti temples. Although a few Western Chalukyan temples can be found in the Konkan region, though the basic plan of the Western Chalukya style originated from the older dravida style, many of its features were unique and peculiar to it. One of these features of the Western Chalukyan architectural style was an articulation that can still be found throughout modern Karnataka. The only exceptions to this motif can be found in the area around Kalyani, the Western Chalukya temples were smaller than those of the early Chalukyas, a fact discernible in the reduced height of the superstructures which tower over the shrines. During the first phase, temples were built in the Aihole-Banashankari-Mahakuta region and Ron in the Gadag district, a few provisional workshops built them in Sirval in the Gulbarga district and Gokak in the Belgaum district. The mature and latter phase reached its peak at Lakkundi, a seat of the imperial court. From the mid-11th century, the artisans from the Lakkundi school moved south of the Tungabhadra River, thus the influence of the Lakkundi school can be seen in some of the temples of the Davangere district, and in the temples at Hirehadagalli and Huvinahadgalli in the Bellary district. Sometimes called the Gadag style of architecture, Western Chalukya architecture is considered a precursor to the Hoysala architecture of southern Karnataka and this influence occurred because the early builders employed by the Hoysalas came from pronounced centres of medieval Chalukya art. Further monuments in this style were not only by the Western Chalukya kings but. A typical Western Chalukya temple may be examined from three aspects – the basic plan, the architectural articulation, and the figure sculptures. The basic floor plan is defined by the size of the shrine, the size of the sanctum, the distribution of the building mass, architectural articulation refers to the ornamental components that give shape to the outer wall of the shrine. These include projections, recesses, and representations that can produce a variety of patterns and outlines, either stepped, stellate, if stepped, these components form five or seven projections on each side of the shrine, where all but the central one are projecting corners
33.
Surya
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Surya means the Sun in Nepal and India. Synonyms of Surya in ancient Indian literature include Aditya, Arka, Bhanu, Savitr, Pushan, Ravi, Martanda, Mitra and Vivasvan. Surya also connotes the solar deity in Hinduism, particularly in the Saura tradition found in such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand. He is one of the five deities considered as equivalent aspects and his iconography is often depicted riding a chariot harnessed by horses, often seven in number which represent the seven colour rays of the rainbow. In medieval Hinduism, Surya is also an epithet for the major Hindu gods Shiva, in some ancient texts and arts, Surya is presented syncretically with Indra, Ganesha or others. Surya as a deity is found in the arts and literature of Buddhism and Jainism. Surya is one of the nine houses in the zodiac system of Hindu astrology. Surya or Ravi is the basis of Ravivara, or Sunday, major festivals and pilgrimages in reverence of Surya include Makar Sankranti, Pongal and Kumbh Mela. However, the usage is context specific, in some hymns, the word Surya simply means sun as an inanimate object, a stone or a gem in the sky, while in others it refers to a personified deity. The Vedas assert Sun to be the creator of the material universe, in the Brahmanas layer of Vedic literature, Surya appears with Agni in the same hymns. Surya is revered for the day, while Agni for its role during the night, the idea evolves, states Kapila Vatsyayan, where Surya is stated to be Agni as the first principle and the seed of the universe. It is in the Brahmanas layer of the Vedas, and the Upanishads that Surya is explicitly linked to the power of sight, to visual perception and knowledge. In the Ramayana, Surya is described as father of the King Sugriva, the Suryavanshi dynasty of kings, Rama being one of them, also claims descent from Surya. Eastern kingdom of mahabharta and ramayana are called to be of Suryas potential, in the Mahabharata, Karna is the son of Surya and unmarried princess Kunti. The epic describes Kuntis trauma as a mother, then abandonment of Karna. Baby Karna is found, adopted and grows up to one of the central characters in the great battle of Kurukshetra where he fights his step brothers. Surya is celebrated as a deity in Buddhist artwork, such as the ancient works attributed to Ashoka, for example, Surya appears in Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya, riding in a chariot pulled by four horses. Sun is a deity is ancient and medieval cultures found in South America, Europe, Africa
34.
Deity
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A deity is a concept conceived in diverse ways in various cultures, typically as a natural or supernatural being considered divine or sacred. A male deity is a god, while a female deity is a goddess, the Oxford reference defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God, a plain deity need not be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, or eternal, however an almighty monotheistic God generally does have these attributes. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous, some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities have been envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living beings body, as sensory organs, but in Indian religions, all deities are also subject to death when their merit runs out. The English language word deity derives from Old French deité, the Latin deitatem or divine nature, deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European language origin to *deiwos. Deva is masculine, and the feminine equivalent is devi. Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin dea and Greek thea, in Old Persian, daiva- means demon, evil god, while in Sanskrit it means the opposite, referring to the heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones. The closely linked term god refers to supreme being, deity, which states Douglas Harper, is derived from Proto-Germanic *guthan, from PIE *ghut-, guth in the Irish language means voice. The term *ghut- is also the source of Old Church Slavonic zovo, Sanskrit huta-, from the root *gheu- An alternate etymology for the term god traces it to the PIE root *ghu-to-, the term *gheu- is also the source of the Greek khein to pour. Originally the German root was a noun, but the gender of the monotheistic God shifted to masculine under the influence of Christianity. In contrast, all ancient Indo-European cultures and mythologies recognized both masculine and feminine deities, the term deity often connotes the concept of sacred or divine, as a god or goddess, in a polytheistic religion. However, there is no accepted consensus concept of deity across religions and cultures. Huw Owen states that the deity or god or its equivalent in other languages has a bewildering range of meanings. Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals, the Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted as an exemplar of a prehistoric divine feminine. In Buddhist mythology, devas are beings inhabiting certain happily placed worlds of Buddhist cosmology and these beings are mortal and numerous. It is also common for iṣṭadevatās to be called deities, although the nature of Yidams is distinct from what is meant by the term. Buddhism does not believe in a creator deity, however, deities are an essential part of Buddhist cosmology, rebirth and Saṃsāra doctrines
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Varuna
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Varuna is the Hindu god of water and the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law of the underwater world. His consort is the Hindu goddess Varuni, originally the chief god of the Vedic pantheon, Varuna was replaced by Indra and later faded away with the ascendancy of Shiva and Vishnu. Arjuna is the son of Indra/ Varuna in the great epic Mahabharata and it is believed that if we pray to him we would be protected from thunder, Varuna and Mitra are the gods of the societal affairs including the oath, and are often twinned Mitra-Varuna. Varuna is also twinned with Indra in the Rigveda, as Indra-Varuna, the Rigveda and Atharvaveda portrays Varuna as omniscient, catching liars in his snares. Both Mitra and Varuna are classified as Asuras in the Rigveda, Varuna, being the king of the Asuras, was adopted or made the change to a Deva after the structuring of the primordial cosmos, imposed by Indra after he defeats Vrtra. Varuna does not respond, and Rama arises on the fourth morning, with his bow and arrow, he angrily begins attacking the oceans with celestial weapons—burning up the waters and killing its life and creatures. The Vanaras are dazzled and fearful at witnessing the enraged Rama demolish the oceans, just as Rama invokes the brahmastra, considered the most powerful weapon capable of destroying all creation, Varuna arises out of the oceans. He bows to Rama, explaining that he himself was at a loss to answer Ramas question, begging him not to destroy the oceans with the missile, he suggests that Rama re-direct the weapon at a demonic race that lives in the heart of the ocean. Ramas arrows destroys the demons, and establishes a purer, liberated environment there, Varuna promises that he would keep the oceans still for all of Ramas army to pass, and Nala constructs a bridge across to Lanka. Rama justifies his angry assault on the oceans as he followed the process of petitioning and worshipping Varuna. Also unrelated to Vedic Varuna are Avestan Vourukasha and Varena, the former is the Avestas mythological sea that covers the earth, while Varena is a mythological four-cornered fourteenth region of the world. In the Buddhism of the Far East, Varuna is one of the twelve Devas, as guardian deities, in Japan, Varuna had been called Suiten in Japanese Buddhism. Varuna joins these other eleven Devas of Buddhism, found in Japan and other parts of southeast Asia, Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirrti, Vayu, Ishana, Kubera, Brahma, Prithvi, Surya, the meaning of suiten-gū is a shrine of Varuna. After Shinbutsu bunri the separation of Shinto deities from Buddhist deities, Ādityas Ahura Mazda Asura Guardians of the directions Hindu deities Mitra Paravar Rigvedic deities Shukra The king and the god Veles
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Vayu
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Vāyu is a primary Hindu deity, the lord of the winds, the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Hanuman. He is also known as Vāta, Pavana, and sometimes Prāṇa, the word for air or wind is one of the classical elements in Hinduism. The Sanskrit word Vāta literally means blown, Vāyu blower, hence, the primary referent of the word is the deity of Life, who is sometimes for clarity referred to as Mukhya-Vāyu or Mukhya Prāna. Sometimes the word vāyu, which is generally used in the sense of the physical air or wind, is used as a synonym for prāna. Vāta, a name for Vāyu, is the root of the Sanskrit and Hindi term for atmosphere. Pavan is also a fairly common Hindu name, Pavana played an important role in Anjanas begetting Hanuman as her child so Hanuman is also called Pavanaputra son of Pavana and Vāyuputra. In the Mahabharata, Bhima was the son and an incarnation of Vāyu and he utilised his huge power and skill with the mace for supporting Dharma. In the hymns, Vayu is described as having exceptional beauty and moving noisily in his shining coach, a white banner is his main attribute. Like the other deities, he is a fighter and destroyer, powerful. In the Upanishads, there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vāyu, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a mans body, one by one the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways. This caused the other deities to realize that they can only when empowered by Vayu. In another episode, Vāyu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack, the Chandogya Upanishad states that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vāyu as the udgitha. Mukhya-Vāyu also incarnated as Madhvacharya to teach worthy souls to worship the Supreme God Vishnu, the first Avatar of Vayu is considered to be Hanuman. His exploits are elucidated in Ramayana, the second Avatar of Vayu is Bheema, one of the Pandavas appearing in the epic, Mahabharata. The Third Avatar is traditionally ascribed to Madhvacharya, a 13th Century Indian philosopher, in the Buddhism of the Far East, Vayu is one of the twelve Devas, as guardian deities, who are found in or around Buddhist shrines. In Japan, he has been called Fu-ten and he joins these other eleven Devas of Buddhism, found in Japan and other parts of southeast Asia, Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirrti, Vayu, Ishana, Kubera, Varuna Brahma, Prithvi, Surya, Chandra. List of wind deities Vayu-Vata - in his Zoroastrian context Maruts, attendants of Indra, rudra, the Vedic wind or storm God
37.
Elephanta Island
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Elephanta Island is one of a number of islands in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai, India. This island is a popular tourist destination because of the cave temples, the Elephanta Caves. The island is accessible by ferry from Mumbai, being about 10 kilometres from the south east coast of the island city. Boats leave daily from the Gateway of India, taking about an hour each way, the tickets for these can be bought at the Gateway itself. The first ferry leaves at 9 am and the last at 2 pm, from the boat landing stage on the island, a walkway leads to steps that go up to the famous caves. There is also a toy train from the boat area on the dock to the base of the steps leading up to the caves. Along the path, hawkers sell souvenirs like necklaces, anklets, showpieces, there are also stalls to buy food and drinks. Small monkeys play along the sides of the path, occasionally thieving items from the hawkers, trashcans and tourists. Known in ancient times as Gharapuri, the name Elephanta island, was given by 16th century Portuguese explorers and they decided to take it home but ended up dropping it into the sea because their chains were not strong enough. Later, this sculpture was moved to the Victoria and Albert Museum in Mumbai and this island was once the capital of a powerful local kingdom. In Manuscript F by Leonardo da Vinci there is a note in which he says Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello the heberdasher has and it is unclear who this Florentine travelle Antonello might have been. The island has an area of 16 km2 and it is located at approximately 18. 95°N72. 93°E /18.95,72.93. The area comes under the jurisdiction of the Raigad district in Maharashtra State, the island is thickly wooded with palm, mango, and tamarind trees. It has a population of about 1,200, the inhabitants are mainly involved in growing rice, fishing, and repairing boats. There are two British-era cannons at the top, quite recently, a small dam has been built so as to hold rainwater but that part of the island is privately owned and not accessible for tourists. There are a total of three villages, Shentbandar, Morabandar, and Rajbandar, of which Rajbandar is the capital, Caves and stalls can be seen in Shentbandar. Staying overnight is not permitted for tourists, the first return ferry leaves at 12, 30pm and the last at 5, 30pm. Elephanta Elephanta caves UNESCO World Heritage Site Going’s tough at Gharapuri Duffers Guide to Elephanta, Mid-Day, Feb 22,2007, pg A14
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Sadyojata
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According to Śaiva Agama, Lord Shiva performs five actions - creation, preservation, dissolution, concealing grace, and revealing grace. Each of the five actions corresponds to a name and form of Shiva with varying attributes and these five names are, Names with Relation to Action Performed, Direction Faced, and Associated Element, Sadyojāta - Creation. Though bearing each a different name, form, and set of qualities, these are all aspects of a one Supreme Being - Śiva and this face of Śiva will give both happiness and sadness to all creatures. This face of Śiva can potentially evoke curse and anger from Śiva, one billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva. This aspect is attained by solitude and practices that transcend conventional structures, vāmadeva, Represents Citta rūpa and Citta rūpiṇi of Śiva. This is Turīya, attained by getting acquainted with primordial energy of the sun and this face of Śiva has special powers to heal both mentally and physically of any creature. Two billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva, blood red in color it represents unmatched force that is capable of transforming all elements of the cosmos. Predominates the energy of life force. It represents indescribable amount of brightness of light, only those established in yoga can contain it within their physical forms, otherwise the mortal frame sheds itself immediately resulting in union with Vamadeva. The adepts contain energy of creation of elements within themselves and it is function of Prakṛti and Parā Śaktī. This face of Śiva is Buddhi rūpa, one billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva. It represents our balanced aspect of Ahaṃkāra Tattva and it represents the forces of Rudra. Two billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva, If you have severe difficulty in focusing on any subject, you should meditate this face of Śiva. Īśāna, Represents the Citta Śaktī of Śiva, starts from your Mūlādhāra to Anahata to Ajna to Sahasrara leading to Brahma Randra in your body. One billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva, the individual is from very less to not at all receptive to social structures. Possesses excellent qualities of controlling mortal and divine beings with ease, the individual has reduced his ego to ashes signifying absolute love for the universe and has been freed from cosmic law. Depending on your Rāśi, Lagna, Daśā, Antardaśā, Janma Nakṣatra, If your resultant is south, you can mediate Southern face of Śiva i. e. Aghora. Depending on the area of life, Kendra, Koṇa, Duṣṭhāna, Trikoṇa
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Vamadeva
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In Hinduism, Vamadeva is the name of the preserving aspect of the God Siva, one of six aspects of the universe he embodies. On a six-faced Sivalingam, Vamadeva appears on the hand side. This face/aspect of Śiva is considered the peaceful, graceful and poetic one — the lord of the aspect of it is associated with water. The Brahman splits into male and female and manifests as the universe, the parashiva has six aspects, Sadyojata — west-aspect that propagates manifest Brahman, associated with Brahma, represents earth. Tatpurusha — east-aspect that reveals, associated with Rishi, Muni, Jnani, yogi, Vamadeva — north-aspect that sustains manifest Brahman, associated with Vishnu, represents water. Isana — internal-aspect that conceals, associated with all that exist, aghora — south-aspect that rejuvenates manifest Brahman, associated with Rudra, represents fire. Thiruvadhanam Six-faced Kartikeya was created by God Siva using his third eye of all the six faces. The name comes from Sanskrit vāma = left, which is the seat of the Śakti and normally associated with beauty and the female, as a Gods name it is a karmadharaya and means beautiful God. As a mans name it is probably a bahuvrihi and means he whose God is beautiful, Brahma created Vamadevas, after he saw, that manasputras, created by him, are not focused on creation and instead focused on meditation and ascese. Vamadeva created lightning, thunderbolt, clouds, rainbows, varieties of all of which are immortals. They are also known as Rudras as they created immortals, Brahma then request Rudras to only create the mortals and not the immortals. Rudra saying that they could create the immortals, stopped the work of creation. Eleven Rudras were created by Brahma, each carry Trishula in their hand, the eleven Vamadeva are Ajaykapada, Ahirbudhanya, Virukapsa, Raivata, Hara, Bahurupa, Triambaka, Savitra, Jayanta, Pinaki and Aparajita. The name Rudra literally means immortal is associated with Shiva. Unlike Sadyojata, Vamadeva is considered as the embodiment of power over elements of creation, Vamadeva is also the name of a rishi, credited with most of Mandala 4 of the Rigveda. He is mentioned prominently in the Upanishads as well, particularly the Brihadaranyaka and his father was Gautama Maharishi, said to be one of the Saptarishi or seven great sages, and his brother Nodhas also has hymns in the Rigveda. Represents Citta rūpa and Citta rūpiṇi of Śiva and this is Turīya, attained by getting acquainted with primordial energy of the sun. This face of Śiva has special powers to heal both mentally and physically of any creature, two billion mantras are trying to describe this face of Śiva
40.
Bhairava
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Bhairava is a Hindu deity, a fierce manifestation of Shiva associated with annihilation. Bhairava originated in Hindu legends and is sacred to Hindus and Jains alike and he is worshiped throughout India and Nepal. Bhairava is the form of Lord Shiva and they guard the cardinal points. These 64 Bhairavas are grouped under 8 categories and each category is headed by one major Bhairava, the major eight Bhairavas are called Aṣṭāṅga Bhairavas. The Ashta Bhairavas control the 8 directions of this universe, each Bhairava has eight sub Bhairavas under them, totaling 64 Bhairavas. All of the Bhairavas are ruled and controlled by Maha Swarna Kala Bhairava otherwise known as Kala Bhairava, Bhairavi is the consort of Kala Bhairava Bhairava is also called as protector, as he guards the eight directions of the universe. In all Hindu temples, there will be a Bhairava idol and this Bhairava is the protector of the temple. In Shiva temples, when the temple is closed, the keys are placed before Bhairava, Bhairava is also described as the protector of women. He is described as the protector of the timid and in women who are timid in nature. Bhairava originates from the word bhīru, which means fearful and its also known as one who destroys fear or one who is beyond fear. The right interpretation is he protects his devotees from dreadful enemies, greed, lust, Bhairava protects his devotees from these enemies. These enemies are dangerous as they never allow us to seek God within, bha means creation, ra means sustenance and va means destruction. Therefore, Bhairava is the one who creates, sustains and dissolves the three stages of life, therefore, he becomes the ultimate or the supreme. The origin of Bhairava can be traced to a conversation between Brahma and Vishnu which is recounted in the Shiva Mahapuranam, in it, Vishnu inquired of Brahma, Who is the supreme creator of the Universe. Arrogantly, Brahma told Vishnu to worship him as Supreme Creator, one day, Brahma thought I have five heads. I can do everything that Shiva does and therefore I am Shiva, Brahma became a little egotistical as a result of this. Additionally, he began to forge the work of Shiva and also started interfering in what Shiva was supposed to be doing, consequently, Mahadeva threw a small nail from his finger which assumed the form of Kala Bhairava and casually went to cut off one of Brahmas heads. The skull of Brahma is held in the hands of Kala Bhairava, Brahma Kapala in the hands of Kala Bhairava and Brahma’s ego was destroyed, from then on, he became useful to himself, to the world and deeply grateful to Shiva
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Brahmin
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Brahmin is a varna in Hinduism specialising as priests of sacred learning across generations. However, Indian texts suggest that Brahmins were often agriculturalists in medieval India, the Gautama Dharmasutra states in verse 10.3 that it is obligatory on a Brahmin to learn and teach the Vedas. The text forbids a Brahmin from engaging in the trade of animals for slaughter, meat, medicines, the Apastamba Dharmasutra asserts in verse 1.20.10 that trade is generally not sanctioned for Brahmins, but in the times of adversity he may do so. The chapter 1.20 of Apastamba, states Olivelle, forbids the trade of the following under any circumstances, human beings, meat, skins, weapons, barren cows, sesame seeds, pepper, and merits. The 1st millennium CE Dharmasastras, that followed the Dharmasutras contain similar recommendations on occupations for a Brahmin, both in prosperous or normal times, and in the times of adversity. The widely studied Manusmriti, for example, states, Except during a time of adversity and he should gather wealth just sufficient for his subsistence through irreproachable activities that are specific to him, without fatiguing his body. –4. 2–4.3 He must never follow a worldly occupation for the sake of livelihood, one who seeks happiness should become supremely content and self controlled, for happiness is rooted in contentment and its opposite is the root of unhappiness. –4. 11–4.12 The Manusmriti recommends that a Brahmins occupation must never involve forbidden activities such as producing or trading poison, weapons, meat, trapping birds and others. It also lists six occupations that it deems proper for a Brahmin, teaching, studying, offering yajna, officiating at yajna, giving gifts, of these, states Manusmriti, three which provide a Brahmin with a livelihood are teaching, officiating at yajna, and accepting gifts. The text states that teaching is best, and ranks the accepting of gifts as the lowest of the six, in the times of adversity, Manusmriti recommends that a Brahmin may live by engaging in the occupations of the warrior class, or agriculture or cattle herding or trade. Of these, Manusmriti in verses 10. 83–10, the term Brahmin in Indian texts has signified someone who is good and virtuous, not just someone of priestly class. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, states Patrick Olivelle, repeatedly define Brahmin not in terms of family of birth and these virtues and characteristics mirror the values cherished in Hinduism during the Sannyasa stage of life, or the life of renunciation for spiritual pursuits. Brahmins, states Olivelle, were the class from which most ascetics came. The earliest inferred reference to Brahmin as a social class is in the Rigveda, occurs once. Ancient texts describing community-oriented Vedic yajna rituals mention four to five priests, the hotar, the adhvaryu, the udgatar, the functions associated with the priests were, The Hotri recites invocations and litanies drawn from the Rigveda. The Adhvaryu is the assistant and is in charge of the physical details of the ritual like measuring the ground. 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 recites from the Atharvaveda, the Ritvij is the chief operating priest
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