twice each year; a palanquin(palkhi)
bearing his sandals is at the head of the
procession bearing his name.
Paksha
One of the parts in the accepted form of
an inference (anumana) in Indian phi-
losophy. The accepted form for an infer-
ence has three terms: an assertion
(pratijna), a reason (hetu), and exam-
ples (drshtanta); each of these three has
its own constituent parts. The paksha is
part of the first term, the assertion, and
comprises the class of things about
which the assertion is to be proved. For
instance, in the stock example, “There is
fire on that mountain, because there is
smoke on that mountain,” the paksha
in this case is “that mountain,” or the
class of things about which the asser-
tion must be proved. The class that
forms the paksha must also appear in
the second term of the inference, the
reason, as the common link between
the two parts (as in “this mountain is on
fire, because this mountain is smok-
ing”). The paksha thus forms the com-
mon link between the assertion and the
reason, thereby ensuring that the latter
is relevant to the former.
In the context of a lunar month, the
word paksharefers to the month’s two
“parts.” The Shukla Pakshais the wax-
ing half, while the Krishna Pakshais the
waning half.
Pakudha Kacchayana
An atomistic early Indian philosopher
whose views are mentioned in the
Buddhist scriptures. As these scriptures
portray him, Pakudha believed that
seven things were eternal, unmoving,
and unchanging—the four elements,
ease, pain, and the soul. According to
Pakudha, when a sword cuts a person’s
head in two, no one is deprived of life,
rather the sword merely penetrates the
interval between two elementary sub-
stances (presumably the soul and the
material part of the person’s body). This
example seems to suggest an antisocial
ethos, but beyond this, very little is
known about him.Pala Dynasty
(8th–12th c.) Eastern Indian dynasty
whose ancestral homeland was in Bihar
but whose core territory also spanned
most of modern Bengal. The Pala
dynasty’s zenith came at the turn of the
ninth century, when they controlled the
entire northern Indian plain all the way
into the Punjabregion. Their rise to
power came as a result of political insta-
bility in the Gangetic plain, and the
Palas were quickly supplanted by the
Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty while
retaining sway over Bengal and Bihar for
several centuries more. Their territory in
Bengal was eventually taken by the Sena
dynasty, and the Palas were finally con-
quered by the Gahadavalasin the mid-
dle of the twelfth century. The Palas and
Senas are both noted for a particular
type of sculpture, in which the images
were made from black chlorite schist
polished to a mirror finish.Palani
Town and sacred site (tirtha) in the east-
ern part of the state of Tamil Nadu,
about sixty miles northwest of Madurai.
Palani is part of a network of six temples
in Tamil Nadu dedicated to Murugan, a
hill deitywho has been assimilated into
the larger pantheon as a form of the god
Skanda, the sonof Shiva. Five of these
temples have been definitively identi-
fied, and each is associated with a par-
ticular region, a particular ecosystem,
and a particular incident in Murugan’s
mythic career—in the case of Palani,
Murugan lived there as a young ascetic.
Every other shrine to Murugan in Tamil
Nadu can be considered the sixth of
these temples. The cult of Murugan is
thus a symbolic vehicle for Tamil pride
and identity, and since the number six
has connotations of completeness—as
in the six directions, or the six chakras
in the subtle body—it also connotes
that nothing external is needed. ForPalani