The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (2 Vol Set)

in the Pallava dynasty, from Jainism to Shaivism. The collected hymns of the three most important Nayanars—Appar, Sambandar, and ...

create a corps of learned men who could help to revitalize Hindu life. Each of the divisions is designated by a different name—i ...

Arati The act of waving a lighted lamp before a deity. The deity may be present in many forms, such as a picture, statue, symbol ...

feature with roots in the Buddhist chaityas (rock-cut cave temples). This architectural style is midway between the Nagara tower ...

Arghya The fourth of the sixteen traditional upacharas(“offerings”) given to a deity as a part of worship. The upacharas are bas ...

kills his long-standing adversary Karna, who is actually his own half brother. After destroying the Kauravas in the Mahabharata ...

This was regarded as one of the four approved forms of marriage (prashasta marriages) but fell out of favor because of the stigm ...

the expense of his neighbors. Weaker neighbors were to be conquered and assimilated, whereas stronger ones were to be pacified o ...

The Aryan movement was once described as an “invasion,” but in recent years it has become more common to describe it as a “migra ...

society. For further information see Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya (trans.),Light of Truth, 1960; Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm, 1976; D ...

In the context of worship, asana is the second of the sixteen upacharas (“offerings”) given to a deityas a way of treating the g ...

The sadhu(“straight”) is the other major type of ascetic and the most diffi- cult to define. Most sadhus are unaffili- ated with ...

which was renunciant, individualist, and stressed inner experience. By the time of the Dharma Shastras(treatises on religious du ...

Ashaucha (“impurity”) Name for the ritual impurity caused by contact with any source of pol- lution; these sources come in many ...

For further information see Pauline Kolenda, “Purity and Pollution,” in T. N. Madan (ed.), Religion in India, 1991. Ashirvad (“b ...

Ashram The abode of an asceticor religious renun- ciant. The word is derived from a form of the verb “to strive” and has several ...

eight sections it contains. Panini wrote the Ashtadhyayias a descriptive account of contemporary Sanskrit, but in later generati ...

A. Moore (eds.), A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, 1957. Ashtavakra (“eight bends”) In the Mahabharata, the later of the two gr ...

Their unusual structure is noted in chapter fifteen of the Bhagavad Gita, in which the ashvattha is described as the tree of lif ...

Asthi-Sanchayana (“gathering the bones”) Name for a par- ticular ceremony performed as one of the last rites (antyeshthi samskar ...