The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

Allahabad (“City of Allah”) City at the junction of the Gangesand Yamuna rivers. The city was named Allahabad by the Moghul empe ...

Alvars described themselves only as human devotees (bhakta), by the tenth century they were revered by the Shrivaishnavareligiou ...

Amarnath, crossing two mountain ranges on the way. Although the region is thinly settled for most of the year, dur- ing the pilg ...

Shankaracharya, Amaru is described as a king who becomes mythically con- nected with the great sage. In response to the challeng ...

great Hindu epics, he is portrayed as a man who is willing to sacrificea boy, Sunassepha, in place of a sacrificial cow that Ind ...

expression meaning “horn of Ammon,” which refers to a form of the god Jupiterthat bears rams’ horns. In India the ammonite’s cir ...

Analogy In certain schools of Indian philosophy, analogy is considered to be one of the pramanas, the means by which human being ...

Anandamayi Ma (1896–1982) Hindu mystic and saint, who during her lifetime gained a wide following in all parts of Hindu society ...

by Nabhadas are quite brief, whereas Anantadas gives extended information about his subjects. Anantadas’s works are by far the e ...

As with many female bhakti figures, Andal had a particularly passionate rela- tionship with her chosen deity, whom she considere ...

state of Hyderabad with the Telegu- speaking provinces of the former state of Madras. This merger did not hap- pen without some ...

her, in which his major contribution is combat with Ravana’sson Meghanada (an epithet of Indrajit). After the conquest of Lanka, ...

deeds through suffering, in many cases by being born as a particular type of animal thousands of consecutive times. Unlike the J ...

Anirvachaniyakhyati (“indescribable discrimination”) This is a particular theory of errorthat aims to explain why people make er ...

Annaprashana (“food-eating”) Samskara Traditionally, this is the seventh of the life-cycle ceremonies (samskaras) in which the y ...

As in any society, the introduction of solid food marks a major transition in the infant’s young life, even though the infant ma ...

Antinomianism This word has its origins in the convic- tions of an early Christian sect, whose members believed that the only th ...

funerary rites. These rites are not a sin- gle action, but a series: deathbed rites for the dying person, cremationfor the corps ...

must be grounded in perception (pratyaksha), the most direct means of knowledge, and must ultimately appeal to perception for ev ...

(ed.), Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies, 1972. Apabhramsha (“fallen away”) An important northern Indian Prakrit, one of t ...