The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

congregational exercise, and also the act of emulating the god Shiva, the paradig- matic ascetic, whose love for drugsis well kn ...

of a single feminine divine energy. Chintapurni is considered to be a form of the goddess Chinnamasta, and this temple is one of ...

Konkan coastline, they are also known as Konkanastha. Chitrakut City in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, about sixty miles s ...

literature tells many tales where Vithoba comes outside to meet him. Chokamela’s memorial shrine is at the steps of the temple, ...

particularly children, to destroy the hap- piness they were denied. For further information about churails and other unquiet spi ...

one of the four objects invariably carried by the god Vishnuand thus one of his identifying markers. See shankha. Consecration T ...

rites is the cremationof the dead body, since the impurity will continue to affect those around the body until it has been consu ...

Brahma is made up of one thousand mahayugas(“great cosmic ages”), each of which lasts for 4.32 million years. Each mahayuga is c ...

couch, Shesha. When the time for cre- ation comes, a lotus sprouts from Vishnu’s navel and opens to reveal the god Brahma, who b ...

Cow Dung This is considered both ritually pure and purifying, perhaps because of its origin in the sacred cow. A piece of ground ...

worship cows, whereas Muslims eat them. Hindus saw Muslim beef con- sumption as a flagrant violation of their religious sensibil ...

Ekam). However, the poem concludes with the thought that even That One may not know the secrets of the cosmos. In its speculativ ...

signifies the final destruction of the body. The chief mourner then ignites the pyre and remains there while the body burns. If ...

patiently for the divine presence. In Sanskritpoetry this bird is called the chataka; in modern dialects it is known as the koki ...

D Dabistan-I-Mazahib (“School of Manners”) An outside source for the religious life of the times, and gives the earliest detaile ...

well-established theme of the temporal ruler bowing to the spiritual adept. For further information on traditional sources, see ...

in the old image that seals an interior cavity. He then transfers a mysterious substance called the “life substance” to a corres ...

sacrifice, and cuts off Daksha’s head. Daksha is eventually restored to life, but with the head of a goat rather than a human be ...

Dakshinayana The six months of the solar yearin which the sunis reckoned as moving southward. In the Gregorian calendar, this is ...

primary deityis the powerful and dan- gerous goddess Kali, although like most Hindu temples it also has images of most of the de ...