lunar month of Ashvin, Rambha
Ekadashi and Devotthayan Ekadashi
during the lunar month of Kartik,
Utpanna Ekadashi and Mokshada
Ekadashi during the lunar month of
Margashirsha, Saphala Ekadashi and
Putrada Ekadashi during the lunar
month of Paush, Shattila Ekadashi and
Jaya Ekadashi during the lunar month
of Magh, and Vijaya Ekadashi and
Amalaki Ekadashi during the lunar
month of Phalgun. Of these ekadashis,
some are more important to the general
populace than others, particularly
Devshayani and Devotthayan Ekadashis,
which mark the rainy season“sleep” of
Vishnu during the chaturmasperiod. The
only ekadashi to appear twice is Putrada
(“son-giving”) Ekadashi. This promises
that faithful observance will bring the
birthof a son, and its reappearance clear-
ly points to the traditional preference for
sonsover daughters.
Ekalavya
In the Mahabharata, the later of the
two great Hindu epics, Ekalavya is a
figure who illustrates the pervasive
reach of the castesystem. Ekalavya is
a tribal boy who wants to learn
archery from Drona, the royal archery
teacher, but is refused because of his
low birth. Undaunted, Ekalavya
makes a clay image of Drona, treats it
as his teacher, or guru, and through
assiduous practice and devotion to his
guru becomes the most skilled archer
on the earth. When Arjuna, a young
warrior-king and Drona’s best stu-
dent, discovers this, he becomes jeal-
ous and complains to Drona, since
Drona has promised Arjuna that no
one will surpass him as an archer.
Drona asks Ekalavya how he has
become so skillful. When he learns
that Ekalavya has worshiped Drona’s
image as his guru, Drona notes that he
is entitled to a preceptor’s fee (dakshi-
na). As his fee he requests Ekalavya’s
right thumb, a gift that will consider-
ably diminish Ekalavya’s shooting
abilities. Ekalavya fulfills Drona’s wish
without hesitation, but from that day
is no longer better than Arjuna.Ekmukhi Rudraksha
A particular type of rudraksha, which is
a bead made from the dried seed of the
tree Elaeocarpus ganitrus. The rudrak-
sha is considered sacred to the god
Shiva, and is often strung into garlands
and worn by his devotees (bhakta). The
seed itself is typically round, with a
knobby pitted surface and a natural
channel in the middle through which a
thread can be easily drawn. It has nat-
ural divisions running from top to bot-
tom, which divide the seed into units
known as “faces” (mukhi). The Ekmukhi
Rudraksha is one in which the dividing
lines running from top to bottom are
completely absent, making the whole
seed a single and undivided piece. Such
a rudraksha is extremely rare, as well as
holy, for it is believed to be a manifesta-
tion of Shivahimself in material form.
Their rarity also makes them extremely
valuable, and street sellers routinely
counterfeit them by carving reproduc-
tions out of pieces of wood, often with
the symbol Omon one side.Eknath
(1533–1599) Poet and saint in the
Varkari Panth, a religious community
that worships the Hindu god Vithoba, at
his temple at Pandharpurin the mod-
ern state of Maharashtra. Eknath was a
brahminwho lived most of his life in the
city of Paithan, which was an important
trading and political center. Today, there
is a shrine to Eknath in Paithan. In keep-
ing with his birth as a brahmin, Eknath
was highly learned in traditional
Sanskritic lore. His best-known work is a
translation into Marathi of the eleventh
chapter of the Bhagavata Purana, a
sectarian religious text that is the most
important for the worshipof the god
Krishna. Yet Eknath also seems to have
been intensely conscious of the spiritual
capacities of the lower castesand the
way in which social boundaries could beEknath