The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

death the community would have no more human leaders, but only their scripture to guide them. The book’s reli- gious authority c ...

Aditi’s twelve sisters and through them begat all living creatures. Aditi is first mentioned in the Rg Veda, where she is one of ...

areas, often making their living by hunting, woodcutting, gathering honey and medicinal plants, and through subsistence agricult ...

injure its social standing. At present this disjunction is also affected by the differ- ing attitudes toward sexuality between r ...

based on past karma; and that gaining true knowledge is the basis of liberation. The first and greatest Advaita thinker was the ...

a baby boy. Agastya is described as pre- ferring a detached, asceticlifestyle, but he compromises in deference to his ancestors. ...

ature emphasizing sacrificial rites. The Rg Veda opens with a hymn to Agni and describes him as “the household priest, the god a ...

The Agni akhara was first established in Benares, and this remains their most important site. All of the akharas have particular ...

sacrificial fire (the god Agni in material form). A final chant during the sacrifice was addressed to Agni. During the Vedic per ...

reincarnation (samsara). Prakrti evolves first into mahat(“the great one”) and then into ahamkar, which is the first stage in wh ...

Ahir The model for traditional Indian society was as a collection of endogamoussub- groups known as jatis (birth). These jatis w ...

Brahmanastratum of Vedic literature. The Brahmanas are primarily manuals describing the correct performance of Vedic ritual sacr ...

with the conditional vow that he will marry her the year that a celibate pil- grim does not come to visit him on Shabari Malai—a ...

Ajita Keshakambalin In classical Indian philosophy, the reputed founder of a materialist philosophical school and whose name ref ...

elements is paired with one of the five senses; akasha is associated with hear- ing since it is believed to convey sound from pl ...

Dashanami Sanyasis, the word akharameans something closer to “regiment.” The Dashanami Nagas were ascetics devoted to the god Sh ...

from which it is made can often reveal sectarian affiliations. Shiva is often depicted wearing beads made of the seeds of the El ...

one of the preferred methods for committing religious suicidewas to jump from the branches of the vata tree; this practice is al ...

Until the beginning of the nine- teenth century, the Nagas were fight- ing ascetics, drawn largely from the ranks of the shudras ...

Alberuni (973–ca.1050 C.E.) Anglicized version of the name of Abu Rayhan Biruni, a central Asian scholar-scientist who was one o ...