Paush
According to the lunar calendar, by
which most Hindu religious festivals are
determined, Paush is the tenth month in
the lunar year, usually falling within
December and January. In northern
India, Paush is the coldest month of the
year. It is considered inauspicious, and
its only holidays are Saphala Ekadashi
and Putrada Ekadashi.
Peacock
Indian bird with several divine associa-
tions. It is the animalvehicle of the god
Skanda, the sonof Shiva, who is the
leader of the divine armies. The pea-
cock’s quickness and resplendent
appearance are felt to mirror these qual-
ities in the young god. The peacock also
has strong associations with the god
Krishna, who is usually depicted as
wearing a decorative crown containing
peacock feathers. This association may
come from the peacock’s connection
with the monsoon, which is the peacock
mating season, during which they utter
piercing calls in the forests and are
believed to dancewith delight on the
hillsides. Krishna’s dark color often leads
to comparisons with rain clouds, and
like the peacock he spends his nights
dancing in the company of his devotees
(bhakta), in the celebration known as
the ras lila.
Penance
The dharma literaturegave consider-
able attention to penance and expiation,
based on the almost universal Hindu
belief in the inexorable workings of
karma. According to this notion, all
good and bad deeds would eventually
have their effect, either in this life or the
next. Penances were a way to lessen the
future consequences of one’s past mis-
deeds, by undergoing voluntary suffer-
ing and expiation in one’s present life.
See prayashchitta.
Perception
In Hindu philosophy, perception
(pratyaksha) is universally accepted as
one of the pramanas, the means by
which human beings can gain true
and accurate knowledge. Perception
is the only pramana accepted by all
the schools, but most of the others
also accept inference (anumana)
and authoritative testimony (shabda).
See pratyaksha.Periyalvar
(9th c.) One of the Alvars, a group of
twelve poet-saints who lived in southern
India between the seventh and tenth
centuries. The Alvars were devotees
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu, and their
stress on passionate devotion (bhakti)
to a personal god, conveyed through
hymns sung in the Tamil language,
transformed and revitalized Hindu reli-
gious life.
According to tradition, Periyalvar
was born into a brahminfamily. From
his youth he showed deep piety, and his
primary means of devotion was to grow
and pick flowers for the image of his
chosen deity, Krishna. The most
famous story about Periyalvar tells of a
dreamin which God commanded him to
take part in a scholarly debate to be held
by one of the Pandya kings. Periyalvar,
despite his reservations about his lack
of learning, obeyed this command after
he woke. When he spoke, the words
flowed out under divine inspiration, and
the bag containing the prize money flew
off the hook and into his hands as a sign
of his victory. For further information
see Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil Literature,
1975; and John Stirling Morley Hooper,
Hymns of the Alvars, 1929. See also
Pandya dynasty.Periya Puranam
Hagiographical account of the lives of
the sixty-three Nayanars, written by the
twelfth-century figure Cekkilar. The
Nayanars were a group of Shaivapoet-
saints, who lived in southern IndiaPaush