his divine gifts, which could not be hid-
den, and the lovers are happily reunited.
Damodara
(dama“rope” + udara“waist”) Epithet of
the god Krishna, given in memory of a
particular incident in his childhood. In
an effort to curb Krishna’s mischief by
restricting his movements, Krishna’s fos-
ter mother, Yashoda, uses a rope to tie
her toddling boy to the heavy stone
mortar used in grinding grain. The mor-
tar’s weight is more than sufficient to
restrain any normal child, but for
Krishna it proves no hindrance, and he
proceeds to crawl about, dragging the
mortar after him. At one point the mor-
tar becomes wedged between two trees
growing closely together, and Krishna
pulls so hard that the trees are uprooted.
After the trees fall to the ground, they
immediately disappear, and in their
place stand two young men. These are
sonsof the god Kuberawho have been
cursed to take the form of a tree until
Krishna comes to save them.
Dampati
(“husband and wife”) In Indian art and
architecture, the figure of a married
couple. These are usually portrayed as
standing next to one another and are
usually devoid of any sexual connota-
tion. This is unlike the more famous
mithunafigures, which are engaged in
sexual activity.
Dana
(“giving”) Charitable giving. This is a
common religious practice, for it is
believed to be a pious act that generates
religious merit. Dana is especially preva-
lent at pilgrimage places and other
sacred sites (tirthas), since the sacred-
ness of these places is believed to mag-
nify the consequences of any act,
whether good or bad. Dana is one of the
traditional paradigms for exchange, the
other being dakshina (preceptor’s fee).
The difference between them is that
dakshina is a fee for services, whereas
dana is given freely and brings one no
tangible benefits. Aside from the intan-
gible religious merit generated by
dana, it is also a common way to get rid
of any inauspiciousnessor ill fortune,
which is transferred to the receiver
along with the gift. This assumption
makes receiving dana karmically risky,
whereas there are no such stigmas
associated with dakshina. People who
live solely by receiving gifts, such as
beggars at pilgrimage sites, are thus in
an unenviable position, since they are
commonly described as “vessels”
(patras) for the depositing of ill for-
tune. Yet this transfer of inauspicious-
ness is a pervasive pattern in regular
society, and even within the family there
are means to transfer inauspiciousness
through well-established gift-giving pat-
terns, particularly the kanyadan, or gift
of a bride in marriage. For further infor-
mation on dana and gift-giving patterns,
see Gloria Goodwin Raheja, The Poison
in the Gift,1988.Danava
(“descendants of Danu”) In Hindu
mythology, the sonsof Danu with her
husband, the divine sage Kashyapa.
Kashyapa is the chief of the Prajapatis, a
class of semi-divine beings, and Danu
herself is the daughterof the demigod
Daksha, so their children have divine
bloodfrom both sides of their lineage.
The name Danava is a general term for
all the families of demons (supernatural
beings), or more properly, asuras. The
asuras are powerful divine beings, who
have legitimate interests of their own,
but whose interests often run counter to
those of human beings as well as those
of the gods (devas). Asuras are thus usu-
ally opposed to the gods—a sense of
opposition carried by the English word
“demon”—but they are not perceived as
inherently evil.Dance
In traditional Hindu culture, all of the per-
forming arts had intimate connectionsDance