Brahmo Samaj, who attempted to
remake the tradition wholesale by
giving it a strong, quasi-monotheistic
emphasis, a quality heavily influenced
by European missionaries. The
Prarthana Samaj lost its steam by
the early 1920s, when social reform
associations became absorbed into the
Indian National Congress.
Prasad
(“favor”) Prasad is food or drink that has
been offered to a deityas part of normal
worshipand, having been sanctified by
the deity’s power, is later distributed to
worshipers as a symbol of the deity’s
grace. In this process, the deity is
believed to have “consumed” part of the
food offering, and thus—in keeping
with everyday ideas about the contami-
nating power of saliva—to have
“imprinted” the food with its substance.
Since this substance has been “charged”
with divine presence, it is given to devo-
tees (bhakta) as an emblem of the
deity’s grace, and worshipers consume it
in the belief that this sanctifies them. Its
sacred qualities mean that prasad is
treated differently than regular food: It
cannot be refused and can never be
thrown away. If one cannot eat it, the
favored method of disposal is to feed it
to a cow. See also jutha.
Prashasta (“Approved”) Marriages
In the dharma literature, or the texts on
religious duty, these are the four
approved forms of marriage: the
Brahmamarriage, the Daivamarriage,
the Arsha marriage, and the Prajapatya
marriage. These forms are deemed com-
mendable because in each case the
father of the bride is responsible for
arranging the marriage: In the Brahma
form the bride is given as a gift without
conditions, in the Daiva she is given as a
sacrificial fee, in the Arsha she is given in
exchange for a pair of cattle for sacrifice,
and in the Prajapatya she is given with
the condition that the husband and wife
perform their duties together. The
Brahma is the only one of these four
practiced in modern India and is the
idealized form of marriage. See also
marriage, eight classical forms.Prashastapada
(5th c.) Author of the Padarthadharma-
sangraha.This text is the most influential
commentary on Kanada’s Vaisheshika
Sutras, the founding text of the
Vaisheshika school, one of the six
schoolsof traditional Hindu philoso-
phy. The Vaisheshika school was atom-
istic, believing that all things were made
up of a few basic constituent sub-
stances: the five elements(earth, fire,
water, wind, and akasha) along with
space, time, mind, and individual selves
(atman). The five elements combined to
form the things in the world, though
selves were considered ultimately differ-
ent from matter.Prashna (“Question”) Upanishad
One of the later and more developed
upanishads, the speculative religious
texts that form the latest stratum of the
oldest Hindu sacred texts, the Vedas. As
with most of the upanishads, the Prashna
Upanishad’s underlying concern is to
investigate ultimate questions, in particu-
lar the nature of the Self (atman).
Considered one of the later upanishads,
the Prashna Upanishad is similar to the
earliest upanishads, the Brhadaranyaka
and the Chandogya, but is far shorter, and
the text is much more focused. Like the
older upanishads, the Prashna is written
as a dialogue. It takes the form of a con-
versation between the sage Pippaladaand
six questioners. In each section (called a
prashna in the text) one of the hearers asks
a question, to which Pippalada replies.
The six sections all have different themes:
the nature of time, pranaas the most
important human power, the nature of life
after death, sleep, meditation, the sound
Om, and the nature of the Self. In this
way, it uses the older dialogue form to
advance a far more developed and
cohesive philosophical perspective.Prashna (“Question”) Upanishad