The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

and his aloofness from the standards and concerns of everyday life. Use of a skull-bowl has also been adopted by some Shaiva asc ...

symbol that, like Shiva, they have transcended all earthly concerns of purity, impurity (ashaucha), and conventional standards o ...

Karana In Indian philosophy, the name for an instrumental cause, or the cause by which another thing is accomplished. An example ...

ways of thinking and acting, and entail an overall assessment of a person. For further information see Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty ...

Duryodhana, the epic’s antagonist. While at court, Karna begins a lifelong conflict with Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brother ...

Jain monuments, such as the massive statue at Shravanabelgola, still stand. Karnataka also contains important Hindu holy places, ...

(kara) as the vessel (patra) in which he received the food he took as alms. This is considered one of the strictest ascetic prac ...

channeled into maintaining the welfare and prosperity of the family. Although such vows are voluntary in the strictest sense, th ...

is still an important pilgrimage site. Kashmir also has a minority Hindu pop- ulation, known as the Kashmiri Pandits. Recent tro ...

mythic tradition, the site was estab- lished when Skanda went hunting in the jungles of Sri Lanka, fell in love with a tribal wo ...

allow the dancer to convey a great range of emotions to the audience. For further information see Mohan Khokar, Traditions of In ...

Katyayana Smrti One of the smrtis or “remembered” texts, a class of literature deemed important but less authoritative than the ...

an extremely strenuous rite: Fully loaded kavadis sometimes weigh one hundred pounds. The carriers some- times secure the kavadi ...

Kavya (“related to kavis”) The most general name for courtly poetry or poetic prose, most often composed in the Sanskrit languag ...

was the two-line verse, which was a self- contained unit with regard to meaning. Verses were composed in meters ranging from fou ...

holy. Of these five, Kedarnath is identi- fied as Shiva’s back, Madmaheshvar his navel, Tungnathhis arm, Rudranath his face, and ...

Krishna. Krishna easily fends him off and kills him, earning himself the name of Keshimanthana, “destroyer of Keshi.” Keshimanth ...

pleasure must be transcended to attain the divine. For further information see Benjamin Rowland, The Art and Architecture of Ind ...

reflects his marginal, uncontrolled nature and his utter disconnection with the conventional values of ordinary society. It is s ...

call and response fashion—the leader sings one line, and the listeners repeat it. The primary emphasis in this rite is the repet ...