The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

the devotional (bhakti) literature com- posed by the Alvarsand the Nayanars, with the former expressing their devo- tion to the ...

which between them lay out the parameters of the Tamil country. For general information about Tamil Nadu and all the regions of ...

importance of graceas the sole means of salvation because human beings were unable to save themselves. Given this dire view of h ...

of the subtle elements became an accepted philosophical convention. Tantra General term for a genre of secret ritually based rel ...

forbidden. Although this rite collapses conventional boundaries of good and bad, pure and impure, the goal is to replace externa ...

will marry the goddess Parvati, and thus make it possible to bring about Taraka’s death. Shiva, however, destroys Kama before he ...

necessary conditions, or by showing that it suffers from a fallacy that renders it untenable. Tarpana (“satisfying”) Tarpana is ...

Teej Teej is a name denoting two different Hindu religious observances, both falling in the lunar month of Bhadrapada (August–Se ...

Temple Cars Name for the ceremonial carts in which the movable image of a deity(utsava murti) can be transported throughout the ...

Shrivaishnavas are devotees (bhakta) of the god Vishnu, and their roots lie in the devotional hymns of the Alvars, a group of tw ...

Thief Castes The model for traditional Indian society was as a collection of endogamoussub- groups (i.e., groups in which marria ...

K’s” that all Sikhs are supposed to wear, so called because each of them begins with the letter k: uncut hair(kesh), a comb (kan ...

northern India, is changing their jewelry on that day because this is said to annoy Lakshmi and raise the danger that she might ...

domination by the Moghul empire. The other festival was Ganesh Chaturthi, which Tilak promoted as a visible way to assert and ce ...

areas, one of the most common themes is the claim that the merit from religious acts performed at place X (the physical tirtha) ...

incalculable benefits, even for actions performed unknowingly or in jest. A sec- ond and seemingly contradictory theme was the s ...

temples in Tamil Nadu built to honor Murugan, a hill deitywho has been assimilated into the larger pantheon as a form of the god ...

and the enormous Minakshi temple, named after the goddessconsidered to be Madurai’s patron deity. Interestingly, the temple was ...

the primary to the university level, and the latter in providing the funds to help build many of the larger Hindu temples in the ...

Tiruvachakam (“holy utterances”) Collection of poetry composed in the ninth century by the Tamil poet-saint Manikkavachakar, who ...